Abstract

Prevalence of knee pain and its correlates with specific emphasis on CVD risk factors in Hisar urban population

Author(s): Sivachidambaram Kulandaivelan, Nisha Tigdania, Mahamed Ateef, Rekha Chaturvedi, Shabnam Joshi, Anisha Malik & Pahinian A

Background: Literature shows osteoarthritis increases the cardiovascular disease related death. There are no such studies from Indian subcontinent that shows association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and knee pain. Thus the aim of this study was to see the association between selected CVD risk factors and knee pain in urban Hisar population. Methods: Present study was a cross-sectional survey in which 1503 subjects (response rate 72.2%; female 54.2%) aged 30 years or more were randomly selected through multi-stage random technique. Data was collected through standardized questionnaire and published measurements techniques by two physiotherapists in summer 2016. Knee pain was defined as pain around knee joint that required meeting physician or physiotherapists or activity modification for at least 3 days in the last 12 months. Following variables were selected as CVD risk factors: age, sex, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), smoking habit, alcohol consumption, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose (FBG). Standard cut-off values were used to define general obesity, abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes from BMI, WC, BP, FBG values respectively. Data was analysed using chi-square test and binary logistic regression technique. Results were presented as OR with 95% CI. All analysis were done using IBM-SPSS (21.0 version) software. Findings: Old age, female sex (OR 1.86; 95% CI 1.44-2.40), general obesity (1.94; 1.39-2.72), abdominal obesity (1.97; 1.42-2.75), non-smoking (1.48; 0.94-2.33), non-alcohol consumption (1.95; 1.17-3.26), hypertension (1.51; 1.18-1.94), diabetes (2.51; 1.83-3.45) were identified as risk factors for knee pain. After adjustment old age (1.06; 1.04-1.07), female sex (2.23; 1.69-2.96), general obesity (1.47; 1.01-2.13) and diabetes (1.65; 1.17-2.33) were identified correlates for knee pain in this urban population. Limitation: Results of this study are compared with osteoarthritis studies. Conclusion: There is conflicting (some positive and some negative) association between CVD risk factors and knee pain. Controlling weight, BP, FBG would reduce the knee pain.