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Smoking and Knee Osteoarthritis

Searching for possible benefits

Publish date:: October 12, 2015

Long-term smoking provides no benefits to patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) while exposing them to other well-documented serious health risks, according to a study of 2,250 patients with OA, including 44% current or former smokers. Researchers found:

• Compared to never smokers, smoking 15 or more packs per year was associated with slightly greater pain and stiffness.

• Smoking fewer packs per year was associated with better joint space width.

• Current smoking was associated with greater pain compared to never smokers.

• Longitudinaly, no associations were found between number of packs smoked or baseline smoking status with changes in symptoms (at 72 months) or joint space width.

Citation: Dubé CE, Liu SH, Driban JB, McAlindon TE, Eaton CB, Lapane KL. The relationship between smoking and knee osteoarthritis in the Osteoarthritis Initiative. [Published online ahead of print September 30, 2015]. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2015.09.015.

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