Rise in obesity driving knee, hip replacements

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Rise in obesity driving knee, hip replacements

CTV.ca News Staff

Canadians concerned about their weight or the health of their joints

have been issued a wake-up call.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has released a report

showing a direct link between high obesity rates and an increase in

knee and hip replacement surgery in Canada.

According to the report, released Wednesday, obese people have joint

replacement surgery at three times the rate of those with healthier

body weights.

People who are overweight (but not obese) are twice as likely to

have joint replacement as individuals with a healthy weight.

A person is considered overweight when his or her body mass index is

between 25 and 29.9. An obese person is someone whose body mass

index is over 30.

" The reality is we have a choice here, " Decter, head of the

Health Council of Canada, told The Canadian Press. " Either we're

going to, as a nation, take some weight off or we're going to have a

lot more hip and knee replacements. "

The report notes that the total number of joint replacement

surgeries has doubled over the last eight years.

Longer waits

As a result, there have been longer waits for the operations.

Earlier this year, a report in Ontario said patients waited an

average of 33 weeks for knee replacement surgery and 24 weeks for a

hip replacement.

And Dr. Olga Huk, an orthopedic surgeon at Montreal's Jewish General

Hospital, said the correlation between excess weight and joint

replacement surgery is a concern, given the number of aging baby

boomers who are gaining weight.

Huk, whose practice is devoted to joint replacements, said " there's

going to be an epidemic rise in the need for joint replacement " when

the baby boomers hit retirement age.

The report, which is based on figures from 2003-04, showed that nine

out of 10 people who had a knee replacement were overweight or

obese; and seven of 10 people who had a hip replaced were in those

weight categories.

" If we reduce the prevalence of arthritis by addressing obesity, we

could decrease the number of joint replacements required. This could

in turn improve the quality of life for Canadians and at the same

time could potentially shorten waiting times for these procedures, "

said Margaret Keresteci, manager of clinical registries at the

Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Dr. Gillian Hawker, a rheumatologist at Sunnybrook and Women's

College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, echoes Keresteci's views

on the relation between excess weight, arthritis and, ultimately,

joint replacement surgery.

" An increase in one pound of weight translates into a twofold

increase in stress through the joints of the knee, " she told CTV.

Doctors say a 5 kg weight drop cuts the risk of developing arthritis

by 50 per cent.

Other report findings:

46 per cent of people who had a joint replacement were considered

obese.

About 35 per cent of the joint replacement patients were considered

overweight.

Only 18 per cent of the joint replacement patients had what was

considered an acceptable weight, a body mass index of between 18.5

and 24.9.

Decter said the data shows it's time for an assault on the obesity

problem, similar to the successful campaigns that dramatically cut

smoking rates in this country.

With files from CTV's Avis Favaro and The Canadian Press