Weight, height, waist circumference: association with knee osteoarthritis findings from the osteoarthritis initiative.

Introduction: Global prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is more than 300 million. Uncontrollable risk factors include age, sex, and height. Controllable risk factors include trauma, weight, and waist circumference.

Objectives: Our goal was to determine the association between knee osteoarthritis and anthropometric measures that include weight, height, and waist circumference.

Methods: Using 4,602 participants (45-79 years) from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, we analyzed the association between knee osteoarthritis and anthropometry collectively and by sex. We calculated female and male tertiles (3 groups) for anthropometry.

Results: Anthropometric measures were correlated with knee osteoarthritis (P ≤ 0.05) except the correlation between height and activities and height and quality of life. When comparing female weight tertiles, there were associations (P's < 0.001) between knee osteoarthritis and weight, but when comparing male weight tertiles, these associations were primarily between the lowest weight and highest weight groups. There were significant associations between knee osteoarthritis and height among female tertiles, with no differences among male tertiles. There were knee osteoarthritis/waist circumference tertile associations (P's < 0.001) for the lowest and highest waist circumference groups.

Conclusion: Higher weight in female participants was a stronger predictor of increases in knee osteoarthritis discomforts when compared to waist circumference, while weight and waist circumference were almost equivalent in predicting increases in knee osteoarthritis for male participants. Height did not predict increases in knee osteoarthritis with the exception of female symptoms and quality of life. Quality of life for both sexes was the most unfavorable with female participants reporting a more unfavorable quality of life than male participants.