Experimental Gerontology — Kwon HM, et al. | February 28, 2020

Researchers performed this study with 5,117 individuals aged > 60 years, to assess the link between smoking and knee osteoarthritis (OA) in the elderly. The participants were selected from the Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (KNHANES-VI) 2013–2015, and included those who responded to questionnaires about their history of smoking and knee OA diagnosed by a physician. The participants were split into the OA group and non-OA group. The OA group vs the non-OA group had significantly lower prevalence of current smoking; 5.1% vs 14.6%, respectively. For moderate smokers who smoked > 10 cigarettes per day or heavy smokers who smoked > 20 cigarettes per day, a significantly higher proportion was noted in the non-OA group. In a multivariate model that incorporated age, gender, body mass index, waist circumference, a preventative effect of current smoking history on OA prevalence was identified in the multivariate analysis. In the general Korean elder adult population, an inverse link was identified between smoking and knee OA prevalence, primarily in men.

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