Intensity of distance running had no bearing on the prevalence of hip and knee osteoarthritis among participants in recent editions of the Chicago Marathon, researchers reported here.

Rather, the risk factors for pain and arthritis were merely those seen in the general population: age, overweight/obesity, and family history of these conditions, reported Matthew Hartwell, MD, now at the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.