Associations of Sleep and Shift Work With Osteoarthritis Risk
Authors' conclusion
Disruption of sleep or circadian rhythms may be modifiable risk factors for OA underlying cartilage degeneration through obesity and obesity-independent pathways.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank prospective cohortUK Biobank cohort
- Participants
- 500,000 participants
- Exposure
- Sleep duration, sleeplessness/insomnia and shift work type vs reference categories (7 hours sleep; never/rarely sleeplessness; nonshift work)
- Outcome
- Knee OA, hip OA, TKA and total hip arthroplasty
Methodological detailsCox regression, adjusted for age, sex, education, race, Townsend Deprivation Index, manual work frequency, occupational walking/standing, with and without BMI adjustment
- Cox regression
- Adjusted for age, sex, education, race, Townsend Deprivation Index, manual work frequency, occupational walking/standing
- With and without BMI adjustment
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
All OA endpoints
Hazard ratio
1.21-1.41
<6 hours sleep vs 7 hours sleep
Hazard ratio
1.24-1.40
Usually sleeplessness/insomnia vs Never/rarely sleeplessness/insomnia
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | HR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Knee OA, shift workNight shift workersvs Nonshift workers | 1.24 (1.12–1.38) | |
| TKA, shift workNight shift workersvs Nonshift workers | 1.28 (1.19–1.37) | |
| 0.512Hazard ratio (log scale) |
After BMI adjustment
- Associations attenuated; short sleep and sleeplessness/insomnia remained associated with all endpoints; night shift work remained associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA)
Sleep associations excluding chronic knee/hip pain at sleep assessment
- Similar
Original publication
Associations of Sleep and Shift Work With Osteoarthritis Risk. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 20 March 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →