Addiction Ups the Risk of Having Children With Arthritis

Being addicted to alcohol or drugs may increase the risk of having children with arthritis, according to a new study.

New research involving 13,036 adults revealed that 20.4 percent of respondents had been diagnosed with arthritis. Researchers also found that 14.5 percent of all participants reported having at least one parent whose drug or alcohol use caused problems before they turned 18.

The findings also show that people with parents who were addicted to alcohol or drugs are significantly more likely to have arthritis. The study also revealed that parental addiction increased a person's risk of developing arthritis by 58 percent. Researchers said the findings held true even after researchers accounted for age, sex and race.

"We had anticipated that the adult offspring's health behaviors such as smoking, obesity and alcohol consumption might explain the strong link between parental addictions and arthritis, however we did not find this to be the case. Even after adjusting for these adult health behaviors, as well as income, education, a history of childhood maltreatment and mood and anxiety disorders, we found that parental addictions was still a statistically significant factor associated with 30 per cent higher odds of arthritis," researcher Jessica Liddycoat of the University of Toronto said in a news release.

Researchers said that additional studies are needed to confirm whether the link between parental addictions and arthritis is causal.

"However, there is ample evidence from other studies to support the provision of efficacious interventions to treat addictions." added co-researcher Maria Stefanyk. "Although we do not know if these interventions will impact the development of arthritis in adulthood, we do know that children do much better on a wide range of outcomes when parents are no longer abusing drugs and alcohol."

The findings are published in the International Journal of Population Research.