Background:
About 303 million people worldwide suffer from osteoarthritis, creating a global medical problem that affects not only the individual patient but also society as a whole.

Material and methods:
304 patients with primary osteoarthritis in comorbidity with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, accompanied by exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, without exacerbation, were examined.

Results:
The level of the WOMAC index scales in the 5th group was higher by 40.89% for pain, 79.74% for stiffness, 35.05% for functional insufficiency, and by 40.02% in total compared with the 1st group; in the 4th group, the level of indicators of the WOMAC index scales was higher by 9.60%, by 17.36%, by 10.01% and 10.40%, respectively; in the 3rd group, an increase of 17.24% was found, by 34.73%, by 19.15% and by 19.10%, respectively; in the 2nd group, there was a higher level of these indicators by 28.44%, by 56.59%, by 26.19%, and by 29 .02%, respectively.

Conclusions:
As evidenced by the post hoc analysis of the WOMAC index data obtained for the course of primary osteoarthritis, starting from the highest, it was shown that: type 2 diabetes mellitus ˃ chronic pancreatitis ˃ chronic non-calculous cholecystitis and functional diseases of the gallbladder and biliary tract systems ˃ chronic gastroduodenitis (р˂0.05).