Harvard research explores post-WWII rise in knee arthritis

Monday, August 14, 2017 - 14:42 in Health & Medicine

The average American today is twice as likely to be diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis as in the years before World War II, Harvard scientists say. And the reasons are less clear than you might think. Based on a study of more than 2,000 skeletons from cadaveric and archaeological collections across the United States, a Harvard report is the first to definitively show that knee osteoarthritis prevalence has dramatically increased in recent decades. The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also upend the belief that the disease is a wear-and-tear condition widespread today because people live longer and are more likely to be obese. “Before this study, it was assumed without having been tested that the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis has changed over time,” said first author Ian Wallace, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Daniel Lieberman, the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences...

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