Kalichman L et al. (2006) The association between morbidity and radiographic hand osteoarthritis: a population-based study. Joint Bone Spine 73: 406–410

Osteoarthritis (OA), in addition to being one of the most frequent morbidities in the elderly, has been associated with a high rate of comorbidities. Kalichman and colleagues have investigated the extent to which chronic morbidity is associated with hand OA in an unusual population—the occupants of small villages in the Republic of Chuvashia, Russian Federation.

All 819 participants were interviewed about their health status, and their medical records were assessed. The presence and extent of OA was assessed via radiographs of both hands. Of the 14 categories of chronic morbidity investigated, only two were found to have a statistically significant association with age-adjusted hand OA score: ischemic heart disease and gastrointestinal diseases (P = 0.022 and P = 0.043, respectively). Participants with ischemic heart disease were more likely to have hand OA than were participants without heart disease, and participants with a gastrointestinal disease were less likely to have hand OA than were participants without such a disorder.

The latter finding was unexpected; previous studies have found gastrointestinal disease to be more, rather than less, common in OA sufferers who were taking NSAIDs. The participants of Kalichman et al.'s study, however, were largely untreated. The authors suggest that the study participants with gastrointestinal diseases might follow a diet that discourages joint degeneration. Further study is recommended, so that strategies to diagnose and prevent OA-associated morbidity can be developed.