Association between height and osteoarthritis of the knee and hip: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 Study.
OBJECTIVES
To investigate whether height at the age of 31 is associated with the incidence of knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) in the following 15 years.


METHODS
Participants in The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) diagnosed with knee or hip OA between the ages of 31 and 46 were used as OA cases. Study subjects without knee and hip OA were used as the controls. Height and weight were measured in a clinical examination at the age of 31 (baseline). Mean heights for the OA cases and the controls were compared by an independent samples t-test. Cox regression analysis was performed to calculate the risk for OA for different height quartiles. The results were adjusted for body mass index/weight, education, smoking and leisure-time physical activity at baseline. Additionally, a Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed.


RESULTS
Men with knee OA were 2.6 cm taller (P < 0.001) and women with knee OA 1.2 cm taller (P = 0.048) than the controls. Hip OA cases were found to be slightly shorter than the controls, but no statistically significant differences were observed. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for knee OA and hip OA in the highest quartile were 2.5 (95% CI 1.4-4.5) and 1.0 (95% CI 0.3-3.4) for men and 1.8 (95% CI 1.0-3.1) and 0.7 (95% CI 0.2-2.3) for women.


CONCLUSIONS
Height at the age of 31 was associated with incidence of early knee OA, diagnosed prior to age 46. However, the low incidence of hip OA made our results for hip OA inconclusive.
['Welling|Maiju|M|', 'Auvinen|Juha|J|', 'Lehenkari|Petri|P|', 'Männikkö|Minna|M|', 'Karppinen|Jaro|J|', 'Eskola|Pasi J|PJ|']
D000328:Adult D000367:Age Factors D001827:Body Height D001835:Body Weight D016022:Case-Control Studies D005260:Female D005387:Finland D006801:Humans D015994:Incidence D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee D016016:Proportional Hazards Models D011446:Prospective Studies D012307:Risk Factors D012737:Sex Factors D013997:Time Factors
osteoarthritis knee hip cohort studies epidemiologic methods