Researchers assessed the clusters of chronic conditions existing in patients with osteoarthritis and the related risk factors and health outcomes. They found five clusters, of which cardiovascular (CV)-musculoskeletal (CV-MSK), CV, and musculoskeletal-mental health (MSK-MH) were more common in OA, and higher health utilization was seen in CV-MSK cluster.

• Using Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD, a total of 221,807 individuals diagnosed with incident osteoarthritis were selected, and age (+2 years), gender, and practice matched controls (no osteoarthritis, n=221,807) were recruited from UK primary care.

• Conditions largely grouped around five clusters in both populations: relatively healthy; CV, MSK-MH, CV-MSK and metabolic (MB).

• In the osteoarthritis group, vs the relatively healthy cluster, strong links were observed for: (1) age with all clusters; (2) women with the MB cluster (odds ratio, OR: 5.55); (3) obesity with the CV-MSK (OR 2.11) and CV clusters (OR 2.03).

• In the osteoarthritis group, the CV-MSK cluster was found to have the highest number of general practice consultations and hospitalizations, and the death risk was 2.45 times higher than the relatively healthy cluster.