Family history of osteoarthritis 'can increase risk of knee pain'

People with knee pain are more likely to see their condition become worse if they have a family history of knee osteoarthritis.

This is according to new research from Australia's University of Tasmania, which specifically aimed to investigate whether people with at least one parent who has undergone a total knee replacement for severe primary knee osteoarthritis have an increased risk of worsening knee pain over an eight-year period.

A total of 219 participants aged between 29 and 61 were involved, including 115 offspring of osteoarthritis patients and 104 controls. Knee pain was assessed after two and ten years, with MRI scans of the right knee performed to assess knee cartilage defects, bone marrow lesions, effusion, meniscal extrusion and tears.

Results published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases showed that 56 per cent of those with a family history of osteoarthritis experienced knee pain after two years, compared to 54 per cent of those in the control group. However, after ten years, this proportion had increased to 74 per cent in the offspring group, while remaining stable in the control group.

Over eight years, offspring more frequently experienced an increase in total knee pain and were shown to be at an elevated risk of the problem getting worse.

The researchers concluded: "Offspring with a family history of knee osteoarthritis have an increased risk of worsening knee pain, which is independent of structural factors, suggesting that genetic factors may be involved in the pathogenesis of knee pain."

An Arthritis Research UK spokesperson said: "There is no cure for osteoarthritis, yet it affects millions of people around the world. For 60 years we have known that you are twice as likely to have osteoarthritis if your parents have the disease, yet we haven't known why. Until we understand the cause of this complex disease, we cannot hope to find a cure.

"A recent Arthritis Research UK-funded study has highlighted eight genetic regions linked to the development of osteoarthritis - with several of the genetic regions encompassing genes that are known to regulate how joints are made and then maintained. This is a major breakthrough in our understanding of osteoarthritis, which we hope will help us to unlock the genetic basis of the disease. We're now funding further research to pinpoint the actual DNA changes within the genetic regions to establish exactly how these changes lead to osteoarthritis."

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