Objective: Assess age and sex differences in the association of obesity and other CVD risk factors with osteoarthritis (OA) in Southern California American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) adults.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Southern California.
Participants: 6,299 AIAN adults aged 35+ years from health clinic system.
Main outcome measures: Osteoarthritis prevalence.
Results: Age-adjusted OA prevalence was 16.5% in women and 11.5% in men. OA prevalence increased with age and was higher in women. Very and morbid levels of obesity were associated with higher OA prevalence in some age groups. Hypertension was strongly associated with increased OA and current smoking tended to be associated with increased OA. For men, we found no association between diabetes and OA; however, diabetes was associated with more OA for women aged 35-54 years.
Conclusions: Southern California AIANs may have lower OA prevalence than the US population as a whole. Comparisons of OA prevalence with other AIAN communities were not possible due to lack of other similar published results. Further studies are needed to determine the impact of OA within this understudied minority population.