Author:
Shen Ziyuan,Wang Yining,Xing Xing,Jones Graeme,Cai Guoqi
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Previous studies have been inconsistent concerning the association between smoking and risk of osteoarthritis (OA). This study aimed to explore the associations of smoking status and change in cartilage volume of OA in two longitudinal cohorts.
Methods
Subjects from the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort (OAI, n = 593) and the Tasmanian Older Adult Cohort (TASOAC, n = 394) were included in this study. For both cohorts, participants were classified into three groups based on their smoking status, namely ‘never’, ‘former’, and ‘current’ smokers. The outcome measures were the annual rate of change of tibiofemoral cartilage volume over 2 years in OAI and of tibial cartilage volume over 2.6 years in TASOAC. Potential confounders were balanced using the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) method.
Results
Overall, 42.3% and 37.4% of participants were former smokers, and 5.7% and 9.3% were current smokers in the OAI and TASOAC cohorts, respectively. Compared to never smokers, neither former nor current smoking was associated with risk of the annual rate of change of tibiofemoral cartilage volume in OAI (former smoker: β=-0.068%/year, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.824 to 0.688, p = 0.860; current smoker: β=-0.222%/year, 95% CI -0.565 to 0.120, p = 0.204) and tibial cartilage volume in TASOAC (former smoker: β = 0.001%/year, 95% CI -0.986 to 0.989, p = 0.998; current smoker: β=-0.839%/year, 95% CI -2.520 to 0.844, p = 0.329).
Conclusions
Our findings from two independent cohorts consistently showed that smoking was not associated with knee cartilage loss in older adults.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine,Rheumatology