OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence of hand osteoarthritis (OA) among patients that were referred to the Rheumatology Unit at State University of Campinas and to verify the association between hand OA and bone mass index (BMI). METHODS: We evaluated 515 outpatients, calculating the BMI and registering the age at diagnosis, sex, ethnicity and diagnosis. Logistic regression was also performed. RESULTS: Hands OA was present in 15.8%. There was no relation between BMI and hands OA in the univariated analysis. However, when multivariated logistic regression was performed, we observed 5.4% increase in the risk to develop hands OA per each 1 kg/m² of enhance in the BMI. We also observed that overweight patients showed 2,16 fold more risk than normal subjects to present hands OA. The obese patients showed 2.04 fold more risk than the normal ones. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that despite the lack of direct association between BMI and the hands OA prevalence, patients with BMI > 25 kg/m² are at higher risk to develop hands OA.
Hands osteoarthritis; Body Mass index; Risk factors
