Artros allt vanligare folksjukdom

Osteoarthritis is a multifactorial disease commonly affecting knee, hip, hand, and spine but other joints also may be affected. Well-known risk factors for symptomatic osteoarthritis include age, overweight or obesity, female gender, and joint injury. Accumulating evidence support that osteoarthritis progression is often driven by biomechanical forces, and the pathological response of tissues to such forces leads to structural joint deterioration, symptoms and reduced function. Still, structural findings indicative of osteoarthritis in joints without symptoms are common, hence osteoarthritis is a clinical diagnosis and confirmation using radiography is normally not indicated. The incidence of osteoarthritis is rapidly increasing by age. In Sweden about every fourth person aged 45 years or older has doctor-diagnosed osteoarthritis in one or multiple joints, the knee being the most frequent location. As we have a steadily ageing and increasingly obese population in Sweden the prevalence of osteoarthritis is expected to increase, which is a growing public health concern.