Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2012 Feb;39(2):337-44.
doi: 10.3899/jrheum.110040. Epub 2011 Dec 1.

Racial differences in knee osteoarthritis pain: potential contribution of occupational and household tasks

Kelli D Allen  1 , Jiu-Chiuan Chen, Leigh F Callahan, Yvonne M Golightly, Charles G Helmick, Jordan B Renner, Todd A Schwartz, Joanne M Jordan
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Racial differences in knee osteoarthritis pain: potential contribution of occupational and household tasks

Kelli D Allen et al. J Rheumatol. 2012 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: We examined whether occupational and household tasks contributed to differences in pain between African Americans and whites with radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Participants from the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project self-reported the frequency (often/always vs never/seldom/sometimes) of performing 9 occupational tasks involving lower extremity joint loading at their longest job (N = 868) and current job (N = 273), as well as 8 household tasks ever performed (N = 811) and currently being performed (N = 767). The associations of the numbers of occupational or household tasks with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain subscale were first examined in simple linear regression models. If significantly associated with greater pain, each of these was included in adjusted linear regression models to examine whether the association of race with pain remained statistically significant.

Results: African Americans reported significantly greater WOMAC pain scores than whites. Exposures to more occupational tasks at the longest job and the current job were associated with greater WOMAC pain scores (p < 0.01). The association of race with greater pain scores remained statistically significant when controlling for occupational tasks at the longest job, but was reduced by 26% and no longer significant when controlling for the number of current occupational tasks. Exposures to an increasing number of household tasks were associated with lower pain scores and were not further analyzed.

Conclusion: Current performance of physically demanding occupational tasks contributed to racial differences in pain severity among individuals with knee OA. Better workplace policies to accommodate OA-related limitations may help to reduce racial differences in pain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Johnston County Osteoarthritis (JoCo) Project participants included in 4 analytic groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Golightly YM, Dominick KL. Racial variations in self-reported osteoarthritis symptom severity among veterans. Aging (Milano) 2005;17:264–9. - PubMed
    1. Allen KD, Helmick CG, Schwartz TA, DeVellis B, Renner JB, Jordan JM. Racial differences in self-reported pain and function among individuals with radiographic hip and knee osteoarthritis: The Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2009;17:1132–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence and impact of doctor-diagnosed arthritis – United States, 2002. MMWR. 2005;54:119–23. - PubMed
    1. Groeneveld PW, Kwoh CK, Mor MK, Appelt CJ, Geng M, Gutierrez JC, et al. Racial differences in expectations of joint replacement surgery outcomes. Arthritis Rheum. 2008;59:730–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen KD, Oddone EZ, Coffman CJ, Keefe FJ, Lindquist JH, Bosworth HB. Racial differences in osteoarthritis pain and function: Potential explanatory factors. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2010;18:160–7. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms