Pre-Diabetes Associated Risk for Arthritis, Obesity and Physical Inactivity Save

The current MMWR reports that arthritis is seen in nearly one-third of adults with prediabetes and that more than half of such patients are obese and not engaged in regular physical activity.

Doctor-diagnosed arthritis affects 54.4 million in the U.S. and the CDC expects this to rise to 78.4 million by 2040.

Physical inactivity and obesity are two factors associated with an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and arthritis has been determined to be a barrier to physical activity among adults with obesity.

It is estimated that there are 84 million U.S. adults with prediabetes. The relationship between prediabetes, arthritis, obesity and physical inactivity were unknown and thus led to the current study.

The CDC analyzed combined the 2009–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) dataset and found that the unadjusted prevalence of arthritis among adults with prediabetes was 32.0% (26 million).

More importantly, those with both arthritis and prediabetes, the unadjusted prevalences of physical inactivity and obesity was 56.5% and 50.1%, respectively.

These data should inform health care, and public health professionals can address arthritis-specific barriers to physical activity by promoting evidence-based physical activity interventions in at-risk individuals.