Abstract
Objective: Observational studies have previously suggested a relationship between diet and osteoarthritis (OA). However, whether there is a causal association between dietary choices and OA, including knee osteoarthritis (KOA), and hip osteoarthritis (HOA), remained uncertain.
Method: We conducted our analysis using summary-level data on dietary factors and OA outcomes (KOA and HOA) obtained from the IEU Open GWAS project. The primary analysis relied on the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method to determine if various dietary factors were causally associated with KOA or HOA.
Results: Our study revealed a genetic association between certain dietary factors and the risk of KOA and HOA. Specifically, alcohol intake (OR 1.26, 95%CI 1.05-1.52, p = 0.014) and coffee consumption (OR 2.05, 95%CI 1.61-2.61, p-value 0.000) were genetically linked to an increased risk of KOA. In contrast, cheese consumption (OR 0.61, 95%CI 0.48-0.76, p = 0.000), cereal intake (OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.37-0.90, p =0.014), and dried fruit consumption (OR 0.44, 95%CI 0.26-0.76, p = 0.003) were identified as protective factors against KOA. Additionally, genetically predicted coffee intake (OR 1.63, 95%CI 1.11-2.61, p = 0.012) and pork consumption (OR 2.18, 95%CI 1.03-4.61, p =0.041) showed positive associations with HOA.
Conclusion: This study provides genetic evidence supporting a causal association between specific dietary choices and the risk of OA. These findings complement earlier retrospective studies and offer valuable insights into potential strategies for preventing OA.