Because of the link between asthma, eczema, and osteoarthritis, medications used to treat allergic disorders may be employed in future research to decrease osteoarthritis.
Scientists from Stanford Medicine and its colleagues discovered that having asthma or eczema increases the risk of getting osteoarthritis, indicating that there may be an allergic pathway that may be targeted with existing drugs.
Increased Risk Of Getting Osteoarthritis
The most frequent type of arthritis is osteoarthritis. Despite the disease’s high frequency, expensive expenses, and severe impact, there is yet no effective cure. The treatment focuses primarily on symptom management.
The researchers used claims filed to a statewide US insurance database (Optum CDM) between January 2003 and June 2019, as well as electronic health information from the Stanford Research Repository (STARR) from 2010 to 2020, to find out.
Over an average of 8 years, people with allergic asthma or eczema had a 58% higher chance of developing osteoarthritis than those without atopic disease. In other words, if 100 patients with and without atopic disease were followed for ten years, there would be 27 new cases vs. 19 new cases.
After adjusting for BMI, those with allergic asthma or eczema had a 42% higher risk of developing osteoarthritis, and those with both had a 19% higher risk. The researchers then used the STARR health records to compare the risk of osteoarthritis in those with and without allergic asthma/eczema.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
There were 114,427 patients in the STARR study, including 43,728 with allergic asthma or eczema and 70,699 with no history of atopic disease. Weight (BMI), a significant risk factor for osteoarthritis, was also included in this dataset.
There was no information on the severity of atopic disease or osteoarthritis, or on the use of popular over-the-counter medications, all of which could have influenced the findings.
“Patients with the atopic disease have an increased risk of developing [osteoarthritis] compared to the general population,” the researchers conclude. “Recent observations suggest that mast cells and type II cytokines may play important roles in [its] pathogenesis broadly, not just in patients with atopic disease.”
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