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OBJECTIVE: The study investigated factors that together with hand or hip/knee osteoarthritis (OA) could contribute to functional decline over a year's time in elderly individuals.METHODS: The data of 1,886 individuals between the ages of 65-85 in a prospective, observational population-based study with 12-18 month follow-up in the context of the European Project on OSteoArthritis were analyzed. The outcome measures were self-reported hand and hip/knee functional decline evaluated using a Minimal Clinically Important Difference of 4 on the AUStralian/CANadian hand OA Index and of 2 on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities hip/knee OA physical function subscales, both normalized to 0-100. Using regression models adjusted for sex, age, country, and education level, the baseline factors considered were: clinical hand or hip/knee OA, pain, analgesic/anti-inflammatory medications, comorbidities, social isolation, income, walking time, grip strength, physical activity time, and medical/social care.RESULTS: After a year, 453 participants were identified as having "worse" hand functionality and 1,389 as "not worse". Hand OA, anxiety, walking time and grip strength were risk factors for hand functional decline; pain was a confounder of the effect of hand OA. Analgesic/anti-inflammatory medications mediated the combined effect of hip/knee OA+pain on functional decline in the 554 individuals classified as having "worse" hip/knee functionality and the 1,291 "not worse" persons. Peripheral artery disease, obesity, and cognitive impairment were other baseline risk factors.CONCLUSION: Study findings showed that together with emotional status, chronic physical and cognitive conditions, OA affects hand and hip/knee functional decline.

Pain is a key symptom of Osteoarthritis (OA) and has been linked to poor mental health. Pain fluctuates over time within individuals, but a paucity of studies have considered day-to-day fluctuations of joint pain in relation to affective symptoms in older persons with OA. This study investigated the relationship of both pain severity and within-person pain variability with anxiety and depression symptoms in 832 older adults with OA who participated in the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA): a six-country cohort study. Affective symptoms were examined with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, pain severity was assessed with the WOMAC/AUSCAN, and intra-individual pain variability was measured using pain calendars assessed at baseline, 6 and 12-18 months. Age-stratified multiple linear regression analyses adjusted for relevant confounders showed that more pain was associated with more affective symptoms in older-old participants (74.1-85 years). Moreover, older-old participants experienced fewer symptoms of anxiety (ratio=.85, 95% CI: .77-.94), depression (ratio=.90, 95% CI: .82-.98) and total affective symptoms (ratio=.87, 95% CI: .79-.94) if their pain fluctuated more. No such association was evident in younger-old participants (65-74.0 years). These findings imply that stable pain levels are more detrimental to mental health than fluctuating pain levels in older persons.

Older adults with lower limb osteoarthritis (LLOA) are highly dependent on their physical and social environment for being physically active. Longitudinal data from 2286 older adults (M age = 73.8 years; 50.3% female) in six European countries were analyzed using cross-lagged Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group SEM. In cross-sectional analyses, neighborhood resources were associated with physical activity (r = 0.26;p

Objective: To determine whether there is an association between osteoarthritis (OA) and incident social isolation using data from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) study.Design: Prospective, observational study with 12 to 18 months of follow-up.Setting: Community dwelling.Participants: Older people living in six European countries.Measurements: Social isolation was assessed using the Lubben Social Network Scale and the Maastricht Social Participation Profile. Clinical OA of the hip, knee, and hand was assessed according to American College of Rheumatology criteria. Demographic characteristics, including age, sex, multijoint pain, and medical comorbidities, were assessed.Results: Of the 1967 individuals with complete baseline and follow-up data, 382 (19%) were socially isolated and 1585 were nonsocially isolated at baseline; of these individuals, 222 (13.9%) experienced social isolation during follow-up. Using logistic regression analyses, after adjustment for age, sex, and country, four factors were significantly associated with incident social isolation: clinical OA, cognitive impairment, depression, and worse walking time. Compared to those without OA at any site or with only hand OA, clinical OA of the hip and/or knee, combined or not with hand OA, led to a 1.47 times increased risk of social isolation (95% confidence interval = 1.03-2.09).Conclusion: Clinical OA, present in one or two sites of the hip and knee, or in two or three sites of the hip, knee, and hand, increased the risk of social isolation, adjusting for cognitive impairment and depression and worse walking times. Clinicians should be aware that individuals with OA may be at greater risk of social isolation.