People with arthritis may be more likely to die of heart disease because their joint pain stops them exercising, scientists have said. A study found the chance of suffering a fatal heart problem rose the longer the patient had been diagnosed.Living with the agonizing condition for nine to 11 years, for example, raises the risk of dying prematurely by 16 percent compared to the general population.Doctors have long known that arthritic patients may go on to develop cardiovascular disease, which can be triggered by inflammation.
The reasons remain unclear, however, these researchers suggest arthritis makes it difficult to be active and a sedentary lifestyle may lead to obesity, a key driver of heart problems. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden studied approximately 469,000 people living in Skåne, Sweden, between 45 and 84 years old at the start of the study in 2003.
The group included 16,000 patients with knee arthritis, 9,000 with hip arthritis, 4,000 with wrist arthritis and 5,500 with other forms of osteoarthritis. They had all been diagnosed in 2003 or before.
Lead author professor Martin Englund and his colleagues looked at the cause of death for all participants between 2004 and 2014 and compared this to people in the general population using registers. Knee and hip osteoarthritis, the most common forms of the degenerative joint disease, had the most severe outcomes of all types of arthritis.
