Compound Effects Of Bmi And Sustained Depressive Symptoms On Knee Osteoarthritis Over 4 Years: Data From The Osteoarthritis Initiative

Purpose: Obesity and depressive symptoms are two potentially modifiable risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA). Obesity is associated with increases in knee pain and disability, joint space narrowing (JSN), prevalence of knee cartilage lesions, and cartilage biochemical degeneration. Depressive symptoms in adults are also associated with increases in joint pain and disability. While previous studies have reported associations of both excess weight and depressive symptoms on symptomatic OA, the knowledge gap on the compound effects of these risk factors on longitudinal changes in cartilage biochemical composition (i.e., MRI knee cartilage T2) remains to be investigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the compound effects of BMI and sustained depressive symptoms on changes in knee structure, cartilage composition, and knee pain over 4 years using statistical interaction analyses.