Abstract
Objective This study aimed to analyze the association between knee osteoarthritis (OA) and
metabolic syndrome (MS) in non-institutionalized elderly patients.
Methods A cross-sectional, randomized study, drawn from a probabilistic cluster study conducted
with 416 elderly people from a Family Health Unit (USF, in the Portuguese acronym)
of our municipality. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the National Cholesterol
Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), and OA according to the
Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) scale (≥ 2).
Results For the statistical analysis, we performed an exploratory data analysis, Mann-Whitney
or Chi-Squared tests and univariate and multivariate logistic regressions, with significance
level of p < 0.05; the concordance between the evaluators was verified through the Kappa coefficient.
There was an association between OA and body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.0021) and between OA and waist circumference (WC) (p < 0.001; odds ratio [OR] = 3.524). There was no significant association between OA
and the number of metabolic components nor with SM itself.
Conclusion We conclude that knee OA is associated with WC, regardless of weight, and that the
increase in its measure reflects a greater chance of MS in non-institutionalized elderly
patients.
Keywords
osteoarthritis - metabolic syndrome - obesity - aging - health promotion
