Risk factors for knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review of the literature

Factores de riesgo asociados a la artrosis de rodilla: Revisión sistemática de la literatura

Introduction: knee osteoarthritis (OA) is defined as a chronic, inflammatory, degenerative, and progressive disease, characterized by articular cartilage deterioration. It has different clinical and etiological manifestations according to age group and multiple contributing pathophysiological factors, among which are: age, race, gender, overweight, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Objective: to determine the risk factors leading to knee OA degenerative process in early and late adulthood. Materials and methods: a systematic review of the scientific literature which included cohort cross-sectional case-control studies evaluating knee OA predisposing risk factors, in different databases. Results: fifty articles which met the criteria and identified the various predisposing factors for developing knee OA such as metabolic, systemic and lifestyle alterations, in addition to modifiable and non-modifiable factors, were selected. Conclusion: knee OA is a multifactorial condition, where obesity, hypertension, high body mass index (BMI), high LDL levels, poor muscular strength and even the patient´s occupation are the main predisposing factors for developing or increasing knee OA progression.

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