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A new study has proved that people, who have undergone physical abuse during their childhood, are at a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis. The link between osteoarthritis and childhood abuse was studied by researchers from University of Toronto.
The data for the study were adopted from the Canadian Community Health Survey conducted in 2005. The analysis of this data proved that childhood physical abuse shares a very close relationship with osteoarthritis in adulthood.
A chronic condition, osteoarthritis causes the joints to degrade. According to Esme Fuller-Thomson, who led the study, “We found that 10.2 percent of those with osteoarthritis reported they had been physically abused as children in comparison to 6.5 percent of those without osteoarthritis”.
"This study provides further support for the need to investigate the possible role that childhood abuse plays in the development of chronic illness."
Co-author Sarah Brennenstuhl stated: "We were surprised that the significant association between childhood physical abuse and osteoarthritis persisted even after controlling for major potentially confounding factors such as obesity, physical activity levels as well as age, gender, income and race."
The researchers mention that this study can pave way for future researches concentrating on how arthritis develops due to childhood physical abuse.
The study was published in the November issue of the journal Arthritis Care & Research.
