Dyslipidemia Might Be Associated with an Increased Risk of Osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND: According to several studies, the autoimmune response may lead to osteoarthritis and dyslipidemia and may affect the homeostasis of the human body's internal environment and then cause its own immune regulation. Consequently, the risk of osteoarthritis might be increased by dyslipidemia, but this association is not universally acknowledged. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to study the relationship between dyslipidemia and the risk of osteoarthritis. METHODS: In this study, PubMed, EMBASE, and the ISI Web of Science were used to identify related studies published before July 2018. The relationship between dyslipidemia and the risk of osteoarthritis was evaluated on the basis of relative risk (RR) values and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). To further investigate this relationship, we also employed the random effects model proposed by DerSimonian and Laird. RESULTS: A total of nine studies were included to study the effect of dyslipidemia on the risk of osteoarthritis, including four cohort, three case-control, and two cross-sectional studies. Among these studies, six stated data for knee osteoarthritis, two reported on hand osteoarthritis, and one reported on hip osteoarthritis. A total of 53,955 participants were included in the meta-analysis, comprising 22,501 patients with OA (19,733 hand OA, 2,679 knee OA, and 89 hip OA). Based on the meta-analysis of case-control and cross-sectional studies, osteoarthritis was clearly higher in those with dyslipidemia compared to those who did not suffer from dyslipidemia (case-control: OR = 1.37; 95%CI = 1.27–1.46; cross-sectional: OR = 1.33; 95%CI = 1.21-1.46). In addition, the meta-analysis of cohort studies did not present any relationship between dyslipidemia and OA (RR = 1.00; 95%CI = 0.85–1.14). CONCLUSIONS: Even though our meta-analysis of case-control and cross-sectional studies suggested a strong relationship between dyslipidemia and osteoarthritis; this relationship was not validated by our meta-analysis of only cohort studies. As a result, further investigation needs to be conducted on the relationship between dyslipidemia and osteoarthritis, considering the significant public health relevance of the topic.