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The burden of knee osteoarthritis worldwide, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2019, along with an analysis of cross-national inequalities

  • Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To describe the disease burden of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) globally, regionally, and in 204 countries by age, sex, and sociodemographic index (SDI) from 1990 to 2019, and to explore cross-national inequalities across SDI.

Methods

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 database collected data on KOA worldwide from 1990 to 2019, including prevalence, incidence, years lived with disability (YLDs). The average annual percentage change (AAPC) was used to measure temporal trends. In addition, the inequality slope index and the health concentration index were calculated to quantify the unequal distribution of the burden of KOA across 204 countries worldwide.

Results

In 2019, the global age-standardized prevalence rate increased by 7.5% compared with 1990, and the age-standardized incidence rate increased by about 6.2%; The age-standardized YLDs rate increased by about 7.8%. In addition to the Republic of Korea and the United States of America, the disease burden of KOA has increased year by year in other countries around the world. The incidence of KOA was highest at ages 50–59, while the prevalence and rates of YLDs were highest at ages 75–84. The burden of KOA was higher in women than in men. Cross-country inequality suggests that the inequality in the burden of KOA between high SDI and low SDI countries becomes greater, and that countries with high SDI bear a disproportionately high burden.

Conclusion

The global KOA burden has risen steadily between 1990 and 2019, and cross-national inequality gaps remain large. Targeted measures must therefore be taken to address this inequality and the increasing global KOA disease burden.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in https://ghdx.healthdata.org.

Abbreviations

AAPC:

Average annual percentage change

ASR:

Age-standardized rates

DALYs:

Disability-adjusted life years

GBD:

Global Burden of Disease

ICD:

International Classification of Diseases

IHME:

Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation

KOA:

Knee osteoarthritis

OA:

Osteoarthritis

SDI:

Socio-demographic index

UI:

Uncertainty interval

WOMAC:

Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index

WHO:

World Health Organization

YLDs:

Years lived with disability

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge GBD2019 collaborators whose outstanding contributions have enabled us to complete this study.

Funding

This study was supported by the project of the Institute of Hospital Management, Science and Technology Project of Fuyang City (FK202081024); Research Project of Fuyang City Health and Health Commission (FY2021-030, FY2021-033).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Fuyang People’s Hospital, Anhui Medical University, 501, Sanqing Road, Fuyang, 236000, China

    Yunkang Kang, Haoran Zhang, Yanbo Wang, Wenzhi Bi, Jian Xu & Biao Guo

  2. Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Fuyang People’s Hospital, Anhui Medical University, Fuyang, 236000, China

    Chunlong Liu

  3. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Fuyang Hospital, Bengbu Medical College, Fuyang, 236000, China

    Yuncong Ji & Biao Guo

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  1. Yunkang Kang
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Contributions

YunKang Kang, Chunlong Liu, Yuncong Ji and Haoran Zhang have contributed equally to this paper. Data curation, Yanbo Wang and Wenzhi Bi; Funding acquisition, Biao Guo; Investigation, Yuncong Ji, Haoran Zhang and Yanbo Wang; Methodology, Chunlong Liu; Software, Chunlong Liu; Supervision, Jian Xu; Validation, YunKang Kang, Yuncong Ji and Haoran Zhang; Writing – original draft, YunKang Kang; Writing – review & editing, YunKang Kang, Jian Xu and Biao Guo.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jian Xu or Biao Guo.

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Kang, Y., Liu, C., Ji, Y. et al. The burden of knee osteoarthritis worldwide, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2019, along with an analysis of cross-national inequalities. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-024-05250-4

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