ArticleAnnals of the rheumatic diseases2012
Life course body mass index and risk of knee osteoarthritis at the age of 53 years: evidence from the 1946 British birth cohort study.
Article in Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of hip and knee osteoarthritis in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Causal analysis of body composition measurements in osteoarthritis knee: a two-sample mendelian randomization study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of the sex differences in risk factors for knee osteoarthritis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Guidelines for treating child and adolescent obesity: A systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of obesity on revision rate in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2021Pooled it
- Behavioural physical activity interventions in participants with lower-limb osteoarthritis: a systematic review with meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2015Pooled it
- Associations of health parameters at 16 years of age with structural knee MRI findings at 33 years of age in a general population-based birth cohort.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2026Article
- "It Is All About Education, Isn't It?": Community Priorities for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adolescent Nutrition Program.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Vascular clues in joint degeneration: a cross-sectional study on the association between aortic knob width, aortic arch calcification, and the severity of hand and knee osteoarthritis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Association between the Body Roundness Index and osteoarthritis: A population-based study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Spatiotemperal Dynamics of Osteoarthritis: Bridging Insights from Bench to Bedside.Aging and disease · 2024Review
- Body Mass Index Did Not Affect the Risk of Revision 3-9 Years After Total Knee Replacement Surgery.Arthroplasty today · 2024Article
- Article
- Effects of Leptin and Body Weight on Inflammation and Knee Osteoarthritis Phenotypes in Female Rats.JBMR plus · 2023Article
- Association of general and central obesity, and their changes with risk of knee osteoarthritis: a nationwide population-based cohort study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Persistent inequalities in consultation incidence and prevalence of low back pain and osteoarthritis in England between 2004 and 2019.Rheumatology advances in practice · 2023Article
- A causal relationship between childhood obesity and risk of osteoarthritis: results from a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.Annals of medicine · 2022Article
- Fundamentals of OA. An initiative of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. Obesity and metabolic factors in OA.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2022Review
- Elevated BMI increases concurrent pathology and operative time in adolescent ACL reconstruction.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2021Article
- A Structured Approach to Evaluating Life-Course Hypotheses: Moving Beyond Analyses of Exposed Versus Unexposed in the -Omics Context.American journal of epidemiology · 2021Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThe authors examined how body mass index (BMI) across life is linked to the risk of midlife knee osteoarthritis (OA), testing whether prolonged exposure to high BMI or high BMI at a particular period has the greatest influence on the risk of knee OA.
methodsA population-based British birth cohort of 3035 men and women underwent clinical examination for knee OA at age 53 years.Heights and weights were measured 10 times from 2 to 53 years. Analyses were stratified by gender and adjusted for occupation and activity levels.
resultsThe prevalence of knee OA was higher in women than in men (12.9% (n=194) vs 7.4% (n=108)). In men, the association between BMI and later knee OA was evident at 20 years (p=0.038) and remained until 53 years (OR per z-score 1.38 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.71)). In women, there was evidence for an association at 15 years (p=0.003); at 53 years, the OR was 1.89 (95% CI 1.59 to 2.24) per z-score increase in BMI. Changes in BMI from childhood in women and from adolescence in men were also positively associated with knee OA. A structured modelling approach to disentange the way in which BMI is linked to knee OA suggested that prolonged exposure to high BMI throughout adulthood carried the highest risk and that there was no additional risk conferred from adolescence once adult BMI had been accounted for.
conclusionThis study suggests that the risk of knee OA accumulates from exposure to a high BMI through adulthood.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.