Osteoarthritis at a glance!
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Loading ...Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of synovial joints characterized by loss of cartilage together with periarticular bone response. It is in fact the most common type of arthritis to be found. Usually, the prevalence of osteoarthritis would increase with the age and most of the time people over 60 years old would have some radiological evidence of it.
Interestingly enough, more women than men, over 55 years of age are affected by osteoarthritis. Studies also reveal that inheritance plays a huge role in its prevalence owing to the fact that OA of the hip is less common among Africans and the Chinese populations than in Caucasians.
The main factors predisposing to osteoarthritis are
• Obesity – with obesity one risks radiological and symptomatic OA in later life
• Heredity – heredity plays a part when one develops nodal or generalized OA.
• Gender – women are more prone to get polyarticular OA after menopause
• Hyper-mobility – Increased joint motion plus reduced stability is another main reason leading the way to OA.
• Osteoporosis & other diseases – while the primary causes of osteoarthritis are not known, secondary causes of osteoarthritis include a variety of conditions and diseases such as septic arthritis, gout, Paget’s disease, Rheumatoid arthritis; some metabolic diseases, systemic diseases and mechanical factors such as joint hyper mobility.
• Trauma – A fracture of any joint or meniscal and cruciate ligament tears cause osteoarthritis of the knee.
• Sometimes joint dysplasia alters biomechanics. This may lead to osteoarthritis later. Mild dysplasia is common condition and leads to earlier onset of hip osteoarthritis.
• Joint congruity is another form that leads to OA because Perthe’s Disease or congenital dislocation of the hip leads to early onset of osteoarthritis.
• Occupation plays a huge role in later life circumstances for anyone. This is especially true of arthritis because some occupations such as mining and farming run the greatest risk. Miners usually develop OA of the hip, knee and shoulder while farmers usually develop OA of the hip. Cotton working is no simple task when it comes to OA because prolonged work of this nature could lead to osteoarthritis of the hand.
• Sports is another important aspect because repetitive use and injury in some sports can cause high incidence of low limb osteoarthritis. In women, weight bearing sports have been seen as the main culprit for developing OA of the hip and knee.
Now that we have a general idea of what it takes to develop osteoarthritis, let’s discover more about its types and symptoms in our next article.
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