ArticleAnnals of the rheumatic diseases2019
Knee osteoarthritis risk in non-industrial societies undergoing an energy balance transition: evidence from the indigenous Tarahumara of Mexico.
Article in Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- The utility of dried blood spot measurement of bone turnover markers in biological anthropology.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Pooled it
- Physical activity and cardiometabolic health across an extreme lifestyle gradient.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Dampened inflammation and reduced risk of osteoarthritis among non-industrialized societies.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2026Review
- Research progress on treatment measures for joint function in non-surgical patients with knee osteoarthritis.Journal of orthopaedics · 2025Review
- Assessing musculoskeletal injury risk and skeletal changes from backstrap loom weaving and traditional embroidery in Chiapas, Mexico.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a three-dimensional nomogram prediction model for knee osteoarthritis in middle-aged population.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2024Article
- Unveiling the Potential of Probiotics in Osteoarthritis Management.Current rheumatology reports · 2024Review
- Contemporary small-scale subsistence populations offer unique insights into human musculoskeletal health and aging.Science advances · 2024Review
- Effects of the energy balance transition on bone mass and strength.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Applying an evolutionary mismatch framework to understand disease susceptibility.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Labour's pain: strenuous subsistence work, mechanical wear-and-tear and musculoskeletal pain in a non-industrialized population.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Nanofat lysate ameliorates pain and cartilage degradation of osteoarthritis through activation of TGF-β-Smad2/3 signaling of chondrocytes.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OA HeLP): a cross-sectional cohort study protocol.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Osteoarthritis - Insights From Recent Research.Journal of rheumatic diseases · 2022Review
- Urbanization and Knee Cartilage Growth Among Children and Adolescents in Western Kenya.ACR open rheumatology · 2021Article
- Development of a model for predicting the 4-year risk of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis in China: a longitudinal cohort study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2021Article
- WEIRD bodies: mismatch, medicine and missing diversity.Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society · 2020Article
- Association of Visceral Adiposity With Pain but Not Structural Osteoarthritis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2020Observational
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
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- Erratum issuedCorrection:2021
Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Non-industrial societies with low energy balance levels are expected to be less vulnerable than industrial societies to diseases associated with obesity including knee osteoarthritis. However, as non-industrial societies undergo rapid lifestyle changes that promote positive energy balance, individuals whose metabolisms are adapted to energetic scarcity are encountering greater energy abundance, increasing their propensity to accumulate abdominal adipose tissue and thus potentially their sensitivity to obesity-related diseases.
objectivesHere, we propose that knee osteoarthritis is one such disease for which susceptibility is amplified by this energy balance transition.
methodsSupport for our hypothesis comes from comparisons of knee radiographs, knee pain and anthropometry among men aged ≥40 years in two populations: Tarahumara subsistence farmers in Mexico undergoing the energy balance transition and urban Americans from Framingham, Massachusetts.
resultsWe show that despite having markedly lower obesity levels than the Americans, the Tarahumara appear predisposed to accrue greater abdominal adiposity (ie, larger abdomens) for a given body weight, and are more vulnerable to radiographic and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis at lower levels of body mass index. Also, proportionate increases in abdomen size in the two groups are associated with greater increases in radiographic knee osteoarthritis risk among the Tarahumara than the Americans, implying that the abdominal adipose tissue of the Tarahumara is a more potent stimulus for knee degeneration.
conclusionsHeightened vulnerability to knee osteoarthritis among non-industrial societies experiencing rapid lifestyle changes is a concern that warrants further investigation since such groups represent a large but understudied fraction of the global population.
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