Osteoarthritis: a comorbid marker for longer life?

Interestingly, a recent study compared the mortality rate of different chronic conditions in patients with or without osteoarthritis. In the various disease groups, lower mortality rates were observed in the patients who additionally had osteoarthritis. Further research is required to confirm and better understand this association.

"Diseases are often described and studied as if they occur in isolation of other disease states, yet many individuals have multiple chronic conditions" (Lee et al, 2007).

"In summary, osteoarthritis was remarkably consistent in its association with a 20% to 35% reduction in 5-year mortality rates in U.S. veterans when present with different combinations of chronic conditions, whereas COPD unsurprisingly increased the risk of mortality. Given that positive spillover effects of osteoarthritis on mortality have not been previously reported in the literature, further research is warranted to confirm or refute these findings and to examine possible reasons for the observed results, such as NSAID use conferring a survival benefit or a healthy lifestyle/health worker effect" (Lee et al, 2007).

Reference:

Lee TA, Pickard AS, Bartle B, Weiss KB. Osteoarthritis: a comorbid marker for longer life? Ann Epidemiol. 2007 May;17(5):380-4.