Reports on the relationship between osteoporosis and osteoarthritis (OA) have tended to disagree, especially in non-weight bearing joints such as the hand joints. We aimed to investigate the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and hand and knee OA in a general Korean elderly population.
We evaluated femur neck BMD and the hand and knee radiographs of 143 men and 123 women over 65 years of age who participated in a population-based cohort study. The Kellgren-Lawrence criteria for grading OA were implemented, and grade 2 or higher were categorized as radiographic OA. BMD was compared according to the existence of radiographic OA in the hand and knee using analysis of covariance, and correlation analyses were performed to explore the relationship between BMD and radiographic OA grade.
After controlling for age and body mass index, there was no significant difference in BMD between participants with and without hand OA (p = 0.717 in male and p = 0.862 in female), between those with and without knee OA (p = 0.974 in male and p = 0.563 in female), and between those with only hand OA and those with only knee OA (p = 0.920 in male and p = 0.961 in female). Furthermore, there was no significant correlation between BMD and the radiographic OA grade of the hands (p = 0.182 in male and p = 0.897 in female) and knees (p = 0.245 in male and p = 0.098 in female).
In our cohort of the general Korean elderly population, no association was found between osteoporosis and OA, regardless of the weight bearing status of the joints.