Early obesity raises risk of hip replacement later
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Young adults who are overweight or obese may be particularly likely to need a hip replacement later in life, a large study suggests.
Using national data on 1.2 million adults, researchers in Norway found that those who were overweight or obese were at greater risk of eventually needing a total hip replacement due to severe arthritis. Men and women who were heavy before the age of 25 were especially at risk.
The findings underscore the importance of heading off excessive weight gain in childhood and adolescence, conclude the researchers, led by Dr. Gunnar Flugsrud of Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo. Their report is published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.
The researchers based their findings on data from two Norwegian national registries. One included weight and height information on 1.2 million adults who were screened for tuberculosis between 1963 and 1975. That information was matched with data from a registry of total hip replacements performed between 1987 and 2003.
In general, the researchers found, the risk of hip replacement rose along with body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height. People who were overweight or obese based on BMI were two to three times more likely than normal-weight adults to need a hip replacement.
But this was particularly true of those who were overweight as young adults. Women who were obese before age 25, for example, were nearly three times more likely than their thin peers to eventually need a hip replacement.
The effect of BMI was less pronounced, however, among women whose weight was measured when they were in their 50s or 60s. The researchers found a similar pattern among men.
“Being overweight when young had a higher impact than being overweight when older,” Flugsrud and colleagues write.
The researchers looked only at hip replacements performed due to osteoarthritis, a gradual breakdown of the cartilage cushioning the joints. It’s possible, write Flugsrud’s team, that the hip-joint cartilage is more vulnerable to damage earlier in life.
“Our findings highlight the desirability of prevention and early treatment of obesity,” the researchers conclude.
It remains unknown, they add, whether weight loss decreases the risk of developing hip arthritis.
SOURCE: Arthritis & Rheumatism, March 2006.
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