The Heritability Of Osteoarthritis Compared To Other Rheumatic Diseases

Purpose: It is unknown whether osteoarthritis (OA) to a larger or smaller extent is determined by genetics than comparable rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthritis (SpA), back/neck pain etc. Family- and twin-based studies are useful in disentangling the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to a disease. We aimed to estimate the genetic contribution to hip, knee and/or hand OA and compare it to the genetic contribution of other musculoskeletal and rheumatic diseases as observed in the same sample: the world’s largest and oldest twin register.