Drinking brick tea containing high fluoride increases the prevalence of osteoarthritis in Tibetan, China

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) in Tibetans is higher than that in Han, while Tibetans have a habit of drinking brick tea with high fluoride. A cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the association between fluoride exposure in drinking brick tea and OA. All subjects were divided into four groups by the quartiles (Q) of tea fluoride (TF) and urine fluoride (UF). ROC was plotted and OR were obtained using logistic regression model. The prevalence of OA in the Q3 and Q4 group of TF were 2.2 and 2.7 times higher than in the Q1 group, and the prevalence of OA in the Q2, Q3 and Q4 group of UF were 3.2, 3.5, and 4.1 times higher than in the Q1 group. ROC analysis showed the cutoff values were 4.523 mg/day (TF) and 1.666 mg/L (UF). In conclusion, excessive fluoride in drinking brick tea could be a risk factor for developing OA.

KEYWORDS:

• Brick tea
• fluoride
• fluorosis
• osteoarthritis
• Tibetan

Abbreviations

OA: osteoarthritis; Q: quartiles; TF: tea fluoride; UF: urine fluoride.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all participants used in this study and numerous members of the Center for Endemic Disease Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Qinghai institute for Endemic Disease Control and Sinkiang Institute for Endemic Disease Control.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: Junrui Pei and Yanhui Gao. Performed the experiments: Xinyue Meng, Hanying Li, Xiaona Liu, Bingyun Li, Yang Liu, Mang Li,

Yanmei Yang, Yanhui Gao and Junrui Pei. Analyzed the data: Junrui Pei and Yanmei Yang. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: Yanmei Yang, Yanhui Gao and Junrui Pei. Wrote the paper: Xinyue Meng, Yanmei Yang, Yanhui Gao and Junrui Pei.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Consent for publication

Not applicable. There are no individual level data in our study.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethical Review Board of Harbin Medical University (HMUIRB20120021). All participants signed informed consent, and written informed consent was obtained from the guardians of minors. No specific permits were required for the locations or activities associated with the brick-tea water sample collection in this field study. The locations were not privately owned or protected in any way and this field study did not involve endangered or protected species. The methods were carried out in accordance with the approved guidelines.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81172605, 30800956 and 81773468), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M551278), Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Fund (LBH-Z14137), and (2013130).