ABSTRACT
Many occupations have been found to have an excess prevalence of osteoarthritis at some joint or other compared with a control group. Probably the best demonstration of the relationship between work and osteoarthritis is that published by N. M. Hadler and his colleagues, who studied the pattern of osteoarthritis in the hands in women working in a worsted mill in Virginia. In epidemiological as opposed to clinical studies, the presence of osteoarthritis depends on the radiological demonstration of features such as joint space narrowing and the presence of marginal osteophytes following the example of Lawrence in his classic studies in the 1960s and 70s. The overwhelming impression that one gets from reading the modern epidemiological literature is that very little convincing evidence indicates a consistent relationship between a particular occupation and a particular form of osteoarthritis; given the multifactorial nature of the condition, this is probably what one ought to expect.
