TUESDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Women have an increased risk of knee replacement surgery with each childbirth, if they have experienced early menarche and if they use hormone replacement therapy, according to a study published online Oct. 28 in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Bette Liu, Ph.D., of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and colleagues analyzed data from the Million Women Study on 1.3 million women with an average age of 56 who were followed up for a mean 6.1 person-years.
During the follow-up period, 12,124 women required a hip replacement, while 9,977 required a knee replacement, the researchers found. Increasing parity raised the relative risk of knee replacement by 8 percent per birth and hip replacement by 2 percent per birth, the authors note. Early age at menarche was associated with a slight rise in the risk of joint replacement, but there was no clear association with age at menopause or menopausal status. Current hormone replacement therapy use raised the odds of knee and hip replacement (relative risks 1.58 and 1.38, respectively).
"Given the large burden of osteoarthritis and the associated burden of joint replacement surgery in women worldwide, it is important to understand the role of potentially modifiable factors for these conditions," the authors write, adding that the reasons for association with hormonal and reproductive factors remains unclear.
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
