Novel association between asthma and osteoarthritis: a nationwide health and nutrition examination survey

Abstract

Background Asthma and osteoarthritis (OA) are medical conditions that inhibit physical activity and adversely affect quality of life. Despite the high prevalence, there are limited studies focusing on the comorbid condition and association between asthma and OA. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of OA co-occurring with asthma and to identify the relevant clinical considerations. Methods Adult participants aged over 40 years who completed questionnaire assessments and spirometry tests were enrolled from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Asthma and OA were defined based on the medical history of a diagnosis made by a doctor. Radiographic severities of OA were measured using the Kellgren–Lawrence grading system. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as a comparative respiratory disease, was diagnosed based on the spirometric results. Results A total of 9344 subjects were enrolled, and the prevalence of asthma and COPD were 4.6% ± 0.3% and 12.0% ± 0.5%, respectively. The prevalence of OA in the asthma group was 31.9% ± 2.8%, which was significantly higher than that in the COPD (17.8% ± 1.5%) or control (16.2% ± 0.6%) groups. OA was more prevalent in patients with asthma after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and smoking status (OR 1.65; 95% CI 1.27–2.13). Furthermore, after adjustment of this model for the prescription of OA medication, OA remained independently associated with asthma (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.10–2.20). Conversely, the relationship of OA medication with asthma was not significant (P = 0.64). This relationship was evident in patients with asthma without airflow limitation measured by spirometry (OR 1.97; 95% CI 1.32–2.93). Moreover, the radiographic severity of knee OA correlated with asthma (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.0–‍‍1.21). Conclusions OA shows a high prevalence in patients with asthma, higher than in patients with COPD or the controls. The comorbid characteristics of these two conditions need to be considered in clinical practice.

Genome wide association joint analysis reveals 99 risk loci for pain susceptibility and pleiotropic relationships with psychiatric, metabolic, and immunological traits

“…Bronchial asthma often presents with chest pain or discomfort [ 61 ]. This result is consistent with the high incidence of pain related conditions such as osteoarthritis in patients with asthma [ 62 ]. Chronic activation of immune cells in damaged tissues (i.e., inflammation) is known to cause hypersensitivity of peripheral pain-sensing neurons by several mechanisms [ 63 ].…”

Increased risk of osteoarthritis in patients with atopic disease

“…In support of our results, prior work has shown an increased prevalence of OA in patients with asthma compared with patients with COPD and control patients 33. This prior study was limited by a small sample size, which included 425 patients with asthma (135 with OA) and 1131 patients with COPD (201 with OA).…”

Phenome-wide causal associations between osteoarthritis and other complex traits through the latent causal variable analysis

“…Data from German Health Update demonstrated that the OA incidence was significantly higher in individuals with asthma compared with those without asthma, and the increased risk remained significant even after adjusted for age group, gender, BMI, educational attainment, and smoking status [ 40 ]. The above result was supported by another nationwide survey [ 41 ]. However, MR studies found that asthma did not show a causal effect on OA [ 42 , 43 ].…”