Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 1993 Feb;52(2):93–96. doi: 10.1136/ard.52.2.93

Cigarette smoking and risk of osteoarthritis in women in the general population: the Chingford study.

D J Hart 1, T D Spector 1
PMCID: PMC1004985  PMID: 8447703

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that smoking might be protective against the development of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. A group of 1003 women aged 45-64 years (mean 54.2 years) from the Chingford general population survey were studied to examine the effect of cigarette smoking on the prevalence of radiologically confirmed OA at different sites. Standard anteroposterior radiographs of the hand and knee were available in 985 women. Disease classification was made on the basis of radiological OA and symptomatic radiological OA. Odds ratios were calculated and adjusted for age and body mass index. A total of 463 (46.2%) women were ever smokers compared with 540 (53.8%) non-smokers. Ever smokers had consumed an average of 14.9 cigarettes a day for a mean of 25.7 years. For radiological OA of the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP) (140 women), proximal interphalangeal joint (40 women), carpometacarpal joint (160 women), and knee joint (118, women) there was no reduced risk of OA in ever smokers. In the small number of subjects with generalised OA (22 women) there was a non-significant 40% reduction of radiological OA in ever smokers (odds ratio 0.63; 95% confidence interval 0.24 to 1.68). Results were similar for subjects with radiographic clinical OA, except the DIP joint which showed a positive association between smoking and Heberden's nodes (odds ratio 2.02, 95% confidence interval 1.89 to 3.42). Results were similar when analysed using current smokers against never smokers. These results do not support an inverse association between cigarette smoking and OA in women. A possible inverse relation with the small subgroup of women with generalised OA and an effect of cigarettes on disease severity cannot, however, be discounted.

Full text

PDF

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abramson S. B., Weissmann G. The mechanisms of action of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Arthritis Rheum. 1989 Jan;32(1):1–9. doi: 10.1002/anr.1780320102. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Altman R. D., Fries J. F., Bloch D. A., Carstens J., Cooke T. D., Genant H., Gofton P., Groth H., McShane D. J., Murphy W. A. Radiographic assessment of progression in osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 1987 Nov;30(11):1214–1225. doi: 10.1002/art.1780301103. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Anderson J. J., Felson D. T. Factors associated with osteoarthritis of the knee in the first national Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES I). Evidence for an association with overweight, race, and physical demands of work. Am J Epidemiol. 1988 Jul;128(1):179–189. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114939. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Claessens A. A., Schouten J. S., van den Ouweland F. A., Valkenburg H. A. Do clinical findings associate with radiographic osteoarthritis of the knee? Ann Rheum Dis. 1990 Oct;49(10):771–774. doi: 10.1136/ard.49.10.771. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Felson D. T. Osteoarthritis. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 1990 Aug;16(3):499–512. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Frymoyer J. W., Pope M. H., Costanza M. C., Rosen J. C., Goggin J. E., Wilder D. G. Epidemiologic studies of low-back pain. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 1980 Sep-Oct;5(5):419–423. doi: 10.1097/00007632-198009000-00005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hart D. J., Spector T. D., Brown P., Wilson P., Doyle D. V., Silman A. J. Clinical signs of early osteoarthritis: reproducibility and relation to x ray changes in 541 women in the general population. Ann Rheum Dis. 1991 Jul;50(7):467–470. doi: 10.1136/ard.50.7.467. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hazes J. M., Dijkmans B. A., Vandenbroucke J. P., de Vries R. R., Cats A. Lifestyle and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. Ann Rheum Dis. 1990 Dec;49(12):980–982. doi: 10.1136/ard.49.12.980. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. McAlindon T., Dieppe P. Osteoarthritis: definitions and criteria. Ann Rheum Dis. 1989 Jul;48(7):531–532. doi: 10.1136/ard.48.7.531. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Spector T. D., Dacre J. E., Harris P. A., Huskisson E. C. Radiological progression of osteoarthritis: an 11 year follow up study of the knee. Ann Rheum Dis. 1992 Oct;51(10):1107–1110. doi: 10.1136/ard.51.10.1107. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Svensson H. O., Vedin A., Wilhelmsson C., Andersson G. B. Low-back pain in relation to other diseases and cardiovascular risk factors. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 1983 Apr;8(3):277–285. doi: 10.1097/00007632-198304000-00008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES