Prevalencia de gonartrosis en pacientes con sobrepeso y obesidad que acuden a consulta en el Hospital Naval General HOSNAG durante el periodo 2018-2021.

Abstract

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic inflammatory, progressive, and degenerative disease, which affects mainly people over 40, with special aim on women. Globally, an estimate of 80% of all world population suffers from physical limitations and a 28% from osteoarthritis, being knee osteoarthritis the most common form of it. It’s also the fourth most relevant cause of disability on women and the eighth on men. The direct and indirect cost derived from this disease is estimated between 0.5 and 1% of some countries GDP. Materials and methods: A transversal prevalence study of descriptive, observational, and retrospective type was conducted in the overweight and obese patients of the Hospital Naval General (HOSNAG), during the period 2018 – 2021. A total of 1695 patients were analysed, of which 342 had knee osteoarthritis. Results: The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis among overweight and obese patients of the HOSNAG was determined on 20.18%. Moreover, we identified that knee osteoarthritis prevalence increases with age and weight. Additionally, a relevant finding was the more prevalent this pathology was in men than in women (a relation of 2:1), which is opposed to what has been defined by other research works on the field, that establish a 7 women per men relation for the average population. This deviation could be explained by the nature of the work of male patients (soldier; a profession still dominated overwhelmingly by men). Finally, we found that the most complications related to this pathology are: pain, functional limitation, crepitus, and instability. Conclusions: Knee osteoarthritis has become one of the most common diseases among soldiers, because of the relatively non-existent prevention on overweight/obesity and because of the nature of the work itself.