Knee pains are one of the most debilitating punishment people can take on their joints. Plaguing both sexes, but more so for women, it is to be expected as one reaches middle age. With such crippling pain, a new 12-year study done may offer insights as to how much this really affects women.

Experiencing pains on the knee can be caused by different factors such as a person's high body mass index, a previous knee injury, or radiographic osteoarthritis.

Suffering from this type of arthritis is truly debilitating as it is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. In fact, reports show that with osteoarthritis, or OA, the United Kingdom suffers from an annual loss of productivity cost at £3.2 billion, and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates job-related OA costs to be $3.4 to $13.2 billion yearly in the United States.

When it comes knee OA specifically, reports show that around 500,000 knee replacements were performed in the U.S. in 2004 alone, with more than $14 billion spent on hospital costs related to the procedure.

With this economic impact in mind, lead author Nigel Arden conducted the first ever community-based investigation of knee pain patterns over a period of 12 years.

Researchers used data they got from the participants of the Chingford Study, which was a study of OA and osteoporosis back in 1989, with more than 1,000 women between the ages of 44 and 57 years old that were representative of women in the U.K. general population.

At the end of the 12-year study, data relating to self-reported knee pain of the remaining 489 participants, researchers found that the prevalence for "any days of pain" were at 44%, with 23% for "pain on most days of the previous month."

While for those experiencing "any pain" versus "pain on most days," 9% and 2% reported to having persistent pain; 24% and 16% had incident pain; and 29% and 18% had intermittent pain, respectively.

With these percentages, researchers identified that having a higher BMI predicted persistent and incident pain patterns, radiographic OA was a predictor of persistent pain, while knee injuries were likely causing persistent or intermittent pain patterns.

Preventing knee pains

Knee pains can affect anyone. As mentioned earlier, those with a high BMI, those who suffered from knee injury, or those who have osteoarthritis are most likely the ones who will suffer from knee pains. So how does one prevent it?

According to The Arthritis Foundation, there are ways to protect the joints as well as prevent OA. Among their recommendations are maintaining an ideal body weight; getting some exercise and doing a variety of physical activities; paying attention to pain and not ignoring it; avoiding injury to the joints; and generally, maintaining a good posture.