Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

INTRODUCTION: Osteoarthritis (OA) in the hip or knee is very common and is the leading cause of long term disability in Canada. To date, we have very little understanding of the impact of OA on physical activity (PA) and its association with other conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporotic fractures, as well as mortality in general. The goal of this project is to better understand the relation of OA to these conditions, thus filling an important gap in knowledge on OA. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1) Does OA reduce physical activity? 2) Does OA increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporotic fractures? 3) Are mortality rates in people living with OA higher than mortality rates in similar people without OA? RESEARCH PLAN: I will use health care data from the Population Data BC and the Canadian Community Health Survey data. The study has three parts. In the first part, I will investigate whether OA reduces physical activity. Secondly, I will estimate the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and fractures among individuals with and without OA. Finally, I will compare death rates in individuals with OA and those without OA. These findings will help the management of OA in terms of 1) assessment of the burden of OA, 2) development of preventive strategies and 3) optimization of medical and surgical treatments of OA. SIGNIFICANCE: OA is one of the most common causes of pain and disability in Canada and often leads to reduced quality of life and work time. With the aging of the population, more people will suffer from OA. Because of this huge disease burden, it is very important to have a better understanding of the impact of OA on PA and conditions that are related to lack of PA such as heart disease, diabetes, fractures, and early death. The results may be used to develop new programs for patients with OA to remain active and new guidelines for physicians to prevent, detect, monitor and treat these conditions in such patients.