Ethnic differences in arthritis due to obesity

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older African-American, Native American and non-white Hispanic women are more likely to develop arthritis than their white counterparts, and the larger prevalence of obesity among these ethnic groups may help explain why, new research shows.

Among 146,494 women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative — an ongoing study of an ethnically diverse group of healthy postmenopausal women — 44 percent had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis (degeneration of the joints), the most common form of arthritis.

These women were older and less active than their arthritis-free peers, and were also less educated, poorer, and heavier, Nicole C. Wright and colleagues from the University of Arizona in Tucson Wright report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

As expected, women in their 70s were at greater risk of osteoarthritis than women in their 50s, while the risk for women in their 60s fell in between.

Overall, the researchers found, osteoarthritis risk was slightly increased for Native American and African American women compared to non-Hispanic white women, while Asian women were at lower risk than whites.

Risk factors for osteoarthritis were more common among black, Native American and Hispanic women than whites; 57.9 percent of African Americans were obese, for example, compared to 51 percent of American Indian women, 41.9 percent of Hispanic women, and 32.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

Prevalence of physical inactivity followed the same pattern, with 30.1 percent of black women falling into the lowest activity group, compared to 19.5 percent of whites.

Osteoarthritis prevalence among the youngest women participating in the study also varied by ethnicity, with 39.3 percent of Hispanic women in their 50s reporting arthritis, 36.4 percent of Native Americans, 33.8 percent of black women, 25.8 percent of Asians and 22.6 percent of whites.

The researchers hypothesize that excess weight could contribute to arthritis in two ways: by increasing physical stress on joints, and also by increasing bone mineral density, which may increase bone stiffness and thus contribute to the breakdown of cartilage.  Continued…

Source

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Posts:


By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with a type of cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, or NHL, are less likely to get appropriate treatment, and more likely to die of the disease, if they fall into a lower rather than higher socioeconomic level, a study in the journal Cancer shows. NHL mortality was higher

Full Post: Socioeconomics play into lymphoma survival
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older African Americans more likely to rate their health as poor compared with older white Americans, even though when the two groups “are functioning extremely well, new research suggests. In a group of healthy Medicare-eligible patients in their 70s, African Americans consistently rated their health worse than did whites,

Full Post: Black seniors perceive health status differently
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Joene Hendry NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Use of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for over 5 years may lessen a person’s risk of developing cancer of the lower portion of the large bowel, study findings suggest. This risk reduction appears more robust among whites than among African Americans, Dr. Sangmi Kim, of the National Institute

Full Post: Pain pills may cut risk of bowel cancer: study
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cancer news stories and public service announcements that call attention to the fact that African Americans are often diagnosed with cancer at later stages and have lower survival rates than whites may discourage African Americans from getting screened for cancer, new research shows. “We have typically assumed that one of the

Full Post: Negative messages keep blacks from cancer tests
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Black women with advanced and recurrent cervical cancer tolerate “platinum-based” chemotherapy drugs better than do their white counterparts, according to a pooled data from three studies, researchers report. Dr. Steven C. Plaxe of the University of California, San Diego and colleagues examined data on a total of 374 white and 125

Full Post: Cervical cancer chemo easier on black women: study

Site Navigation

Most Read

Search

Contact

  • kinwrite.com@gmail.com