Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Causes of Osteoarthritis
The cause of osteoarthritis is unknown, but there are factors that increase the likelihood of developing the disease, such as repeated strenuous activity. However, the condition is commonly linked with injury or deformities of the skeleton that disturb the normal workings of the joints and the joint surfaces. Being overweight makes osteoarthritis significantly worse.
The disease process involves damage to the cartilage-covered, weight-bearing surface of the bones, and there is sometimes widening or re-modelling (changing of the shape) of the ends of the bones involved in the joint. In spite of the name (‘-itis’ usually means ‘inflammation’), relatively little inflammation is seen. New spurs of bone often develop at the margins of the affected joints.
Factors that contribute to osteoarthritis include:
- a physical injury to the joint,
- too much pressure from high body weight (obesity),
- change in the physical relationship of the bone-ends caused by rickets, bow-legs, knock-knee and congenital changes of shape,
- over-use of certain joints,
- infection,
- damage to the nerve supply to the joint, and
- other joint diseases such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis.
There is evidence of a genetic factor in osteoarthritis. Recent research suggests for the first time that there may be a hereditary basis for osteoarthritis.
This research does not suggest that there is a gene for osteoarthritis. It does, however, indicate that genetic factors probably contribute to the development of the disease. As in many other conditions, osteoarthritis is probably a disease in which environmental factors operate on a person who is already genetically vulnerable to developing the condition.
