A study from Australia's University of Adelaide found smoking men are less likely to need hip and knee replacements as they get older, researchers said on Friday.

While smoking is linked to many health problems, including lung cancer and heart disease, the study found long-term male smokers were less vulnerable to osteoarthritis.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide studied the health records of 11,000 men aged between 65 and 83, and found men who had smoked for more than 48 years were 51 percent less likely to have total joint replacements such as hip or knee, than men who had never smoked.

According to principal investigator Professor Philip Ryan and PhD student George Mnatzaganian, the findings do not endorse smoking because it is linked to a range of serious diseases which cause premature death.

"This study shows that further research is needed to understand why smoking appears to offer protection against osteoarthritis," Professor Ryan told ABC News on Friday.

He said this is not the only study to demonstrate a link between smoking and decreased risk of osteoarthritis, but it is the first to report a strong, inverse relationship between how long the patient smoked and risk of total joint replacement.

"Despite these findings, the fact remains that any possible beneficial effect of smoking on osteoarthritis is far outweighed by other health risks," he said.

The surprising findings are published in the international journal Arthritis and Rheumatism on Friday.

Xinhua