New research suggests that African Americans have a higher prevalence of multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA), which may not be recognized based on the current definition of generalized OA

The research also shows that compared to whites, African Americans are at greater risk to develop OA in the knee joint but are less likely to be affected by OA in the hand. Researchers discovered that compared with whites, African Americans had substantially less frequent OA in the joints of the fingertip (distal interphalangeal), either just in the finger tips or also in other joints of the hand. African Americans were also potentially at double the risk of having osteoarthritis in their knee (TFJ) compared with whites and had a 77% greater likelihood of having OA in both their knee and spine. Racial differences in OA phenotypes were more significant than gender disparity. The findings suggest a substantial health burden of large-joint OA, particularly hip and spine, among African Americans.