People with allergic diseases such as asthma or atopic eczema (neurodermatitis) seem to develop arthrosis more frequently. This was the result of evaluating insurance data and electronic medical records from over 200,000 people in the USA.
The research group recorded how often people developed osteoarthritis. Over an average eight-year period, people with allergic asthma or atopic eczema were 58 percent more likely than those without these conditions. This corresponded to 27 compared to 19 new cases in each 100 people with and without atopic disease within ten years. People with allergic asthma and neurodermatitis developed arthrosis twice as often as people without an allergic disease.
Over an eight-year period, people with allergic asthma were 83 percent more likely to have osteoarthritis than people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — a lung disease in which allergic signaling pathways are not involved.
Another data set, which also contained information on the BMI, calculated a 42 percent higher risk of osteoarthritis for patients with allergic asthma or atopic eczema and for patients with both diseases a 19 percent higher risk, taking the BMI into account.
The researchers believe it is possible that drugs to reduce allergic reactions could also reduce the risk of osteoarthritis. Because more and more research results indicate that the activation of certain white blood cells (mast cells) and inflammatory messengers involved in allergic reactions may also play a role in the development of osteoarthritis. The results were published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Which: DOI 10.1136/ard-2022-223640