The projected burden of knee osteoarthritis in New Zealand: healthcare expenditure and total joint replacement provision---a response

New Zealand Medical Journal

Abstract

The main purpose of our analysis was to investigate to what extent healthcare costs (including TKR demand) will increase as a result of increasing population obesity in New Zealand. This focus required delimiting the population to that for which we had reliable population data and evidence of the association between obesity, OA and those effects. Among the top 20 causes of disability-related life-years lost in adults, many (such as cardiovascular causes and cancer) have shown decreases between 1990 and 2018, but OA has shown among the greatest rises. This is largely driven by people living longer with OA, rising obesity rates, increasing injury rates and earlier onset of OA.