Association of smoking and osteoarthritis in US (NHANES 1999–2018)

Abstract Little is currently known about the effect of smoking on osteoarthritis (OA). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between smoking and OA in the United States (US) general population. Cross-sectional study. Level of evidence, 3. 40,201 eligible participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2018 were included and divided into OA and non-arthritis groups. Participants demographics and characteristics were compared between the two groups. Then the participants were divided into non-smokers, former smokers, and current smokers based on their smoking status, also demographics and characteristics among the three groups were compared. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between smoking and OA. The current and former smoking rate in the OA group (53.0%) was significantly higher than that in the non-arthritis group (42.5%; p