Hands, knees, hips, and spine
A. Arthritis is a general term that means inflammation of the joints. Osteoarthritis, commonly known as wear and tear arthritis, is the most common type of arthritis. It is associated with a breakdown of cartilage in joints and can occur in almost any joint in the body. It commonly occurs in the weight-bearing joints of the hips, knees, and spine. It also affects the fingers, thumb, neck, and large toe. Osteoarthritis -- also called OA -- usually does not affect other joints unless previous injury, excessive stress or an underlying disorder of cartilage is involved. Osteoarthritis can occur in any joint. It occurs most often in the hands, knees, hips, and spine. Warning signs of osteoarthritis are: 1  Stiffness in a joint after getting out of bed or sitting for a long time. 2  Swelling or tenderness in one or more joints. 3  A crunching feeling or the sound of bone rubbing on bone. Although osteoarthritis can occur in any joint, most often it affects the hands, knees, hips, and spine (either at the neck or lower back). Different characteristics of the disease can depend on the specific joint(s) affected. Lupus arthritis causes pain, stiffness, swelling, tenderness and warmth in your joints. The joints most often affected are the ones farthest from the middle of the body, such as fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles and toes. ARTHRITIS Arthritis is an inflammation of a joint or joints which causes pain and stiffness but the word 'arthritis' is often used to cover a range of conditions, many of which are not true arthritis.
http://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/guide/osteoarthritis-basics http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Osteoarthritis/osteoarthritis_ff.asp http://www.niams.nih.gov/health_Info/Osteoarthritis/ http://www.lupus.org/answers/entry/joint-muscle-pain-in-lupus http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Sciences/IVABS/Equine%20Clinic%20and%20Hospital/PDFs/Arthritis.pdf
where do joints occur