After a mean of 14.4 years follow-up, 1,230 cardiovascular events occurred, of which 101 were in the clinical knee OA group.
In a model that adjusted for age and gender, radiographic OA was not related to future CVD, a composite of coronary heart disease or stroke (hazard ratio, 1.00; P = .96); nor was the presence of clinical OA (HR, 1.08; P = .45), said Dr. Bierma-Zeinstra, professor of arthritis and related disorders at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
After researchers further adjusted for the cardiovascular risk factors of diabetes, body mass index, hypertension, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, and current smoking, again, no relationship was observed with CVD and radiographic OA (HR, 0.99; P = .92) or clinical OA (HR, 1.09; P = .43). Data were not shown for hand and hip OA, but the results were similar, she said.
"We didn’t see any increased risk for future cardiovascular disease in this particular cohort of people 55 years or older ... but maybe you could see it in younger cohorts or find it in people with new-onset osteoarthritis, but in this particular cohort, we did not see an association," Dr. Bierma-Zeinstra said.
As noted above, the risk of suffering a cardiovascular event was significantly elevated in individuals with a disability in model one and model two (HR, 1.30 and HR, 1.26, respectively; both P less than .001) and in those with a lower-limb disability in model one (HR, 1.22; P =.002) and model two (HR, 1.19; P =.008).
Dr. Jüni and Dr. Bierma-Zeinstra reported no relevant disclosures.