Implementation of the simplified stochastic model of ageing for longitudinal osteoarthritis data assessment

Michael Korostishevsky, Frances Williams, Deborah Hart, Orit Blumenfeld, Timothy Spector, Gregory Livshits*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Occurrence and progression of age-related irreversible degradations of skeletal joints, osteoarthritis (OA), has a stochastic nature. However, it is commonly described using polynomial models, which may not necessarily be optimal.Aim: To implement a stochastic model of gradual accumulation of the distinct changes for estimating individuals' putative age at onset and risk of the process advancing in the OA longitudinal data.Subjects and methods: The model was formulated as a discrete Markov process. It was applied to radiographic knee osteoarthritis (RKOA) data: 243 Kellgren-Lawrence (K/L) and 207 osteophytes (OP) score histories from the 15-year follow-up Chingford study.Results: The model performance was examined in Monte-Carlo simulations. The mean age at onset of knee osteoarthritis was: 53.04 and 53.23 years and the average annual risk of one K/L and one OP grade appearance was: 0.066 and 0.025, respectively. The analysis also suggested that there is 34 years difference between the inferred age at onset and the age when knee osteoarthritis becomes detectable on radiograph.Conclusion: The stochastic model provides more accurate description of the empiric data compared with the corresponding polynomial model. The model-based individual's estimates could be used as an important tool to fit age-related patterns of the corresponding diseases and conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)214-222
Number of pages9
JournalAnnals of Human Biology
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2012

Funding

FundersFunder number
Ministry of Health, State of Israel3-4101

    Keywords

    • Age-dependent degeneration
    • Kellgren/Lawrence
    • Knee osteoarthritis
    • Maximum likelihood
    • Monte-Carlo simulation

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