Nearly half of the city’s elderly women — 47 percent — are afflicted with osteoarthritis of the hips or knees, a new Health Department survey reveals.
Women aged 65 and over were twice as likely as their elderly male counterparts to suffer from arthritic conditions of the knee or hips, according to the city study. About one in four males over 65 have arthritis.
About one in six of all adult New Yorkers suffer from arthritis, a condition that worsens with age.
Even among younger adults, there was a gender disparity — 19 percent of all women had an arthritic diagnosis compared to 11 percent of men.