Association of low dietary vitamin K intake with radiographic knee osteoarthritis in the Japanese elderly population: dietary survey in a population-based cohort of the ROAD study.
BACKGROUND
The present study sought to identify dietary nutrients associated with the prevalence of radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) in the Japanese elderly of a population-based cohort of the Research on Osteoarthritis Against Disability (ROAD) study.


METHODS
From the baseline survey of the ROAD study, 719 participants >or=60 years of age (270 men, 449 women) of a rural cohort were analyzed. Dietary nutrient intakes for the previous 1 month were assessed by a self-administered brief diet history questionnaire. The radiographic severity at both knees was determined by the Kellgren/Lawrence (KL) system.


RESULTS
The prevalence of knee OA of KL >or=2 was 70.8%. Age, body mass index, and female sex were positively associated with the prevalence. Among the dietary factors, only vitamin K intake was shown to be inversely associated with the prevalence of radiographic knee OA by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The presence of joint space narrowing of the knee was also inversely associated with vitamin K intake. The prevalence of radiographic knee OA for each dietary vitamin K intake quartile decreased with the increased intake.


CONCLUSIONS
The present cross-sectional study using a population-based cohort supports the hypothesis that low dietary vitamin K intake is a risk factor for knee OA. Vitamin K may have a protective role against knee OA and might lead to a disease-modifying treatment.
Oka
Hiroyuki
H
Department of Joint Disease Research, 22nd Century Medical and Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
Akune
Toru
T
Muraki
Shigeyuki
S
En-yo
Yoshio
Y
Yoshida
Munehito
M
Saika
Akihiro
A
Sasaki
Satoshi
S
Nakamura
Kozo
K
Kawaguchi
Hiroshi
H
Yoshimura
Noriko
N
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011859:Radiography; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014813:Vitamin K Deficiency / Q000150:complications*