Background: Osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are prevalent in India. However, there is dearth of literature among Indians studying the relationship between the two. This study was carried out to assess various cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) with an objective to investigate their association, screening and management. 

Methods: In total, 225 patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants were diagnosed with knee OA on the basis of  Kellgren and Lawrence (K-L) classification of their radiograph. Participants were also assessed for CV risk factors (age, BMI, systolic BP, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, HDL, smoking) with the help of the Joint British Society QRisk3 calculator (JBS3), which gave three variables: JBS3 risk score, heart age, life expectancy. Chi Square and Anova p test were used to compare the variables. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to find out the relationship between CV risk factors and knee OA.

Results: Patients with severe knee OA had a statistically significant higher prevalence of CV risk factors (p<0.05>. Some patients were diagnosed with hypertension or hypercholesterolemia for the first time and few were aware of the severity of their known co-morbidities. Grade 4 knee OA patients were found to have a mean JBS3 risk of 38%, heart age of 82 years and life expectancy of 77 years as compared to grade 2 patients who had a mean JBS3 risk of 11%, heart age of 63 years and life expectancy of 82 years.

Conclusions: Our study concluded that there is a strong positive correlation between knee OA and CVD with CV risk score being directly proportional to the severity of OA. JBS3 is a comprehensive risk score calculator as well as a screening tool, which produces three more comprehensive variables, namely 10-years risk of developing CVD, physiological heart age and life expectancy.

In total, 225 patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants were diagnosed with knee OA on the basis of Kellgren and Lawrence (K-L) classification of their radiograph. Participants were also assessed for CV risk factors (age, BMI, systolic BP, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, HDL, smoking) with the help of the Joint British Society QRisk3 calculator (JBS3), which gave three variables: JBS3 risk score, heart age, life expectancy. The data was uploaded to each patient specific file in the mobile based application of JBS 3 risk score calculator and also the excel spreadsheet as raw data. the data has been organised in the spreadsheet. 

Later, the data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Chi Square and Anova p test were used to compare the variables. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to find out the relationship between CV risk factors and knee OA.

No missing values. a person would require the JBS 3 Risk score calculator mobile based application.