Diet and exercise reduced weight and knee pain in obese osteoarthritis patients: JAMA

In both urban and rural North Carolina counties, a community-based, assessor-blinded, randomized clinical study was conducted. Patients were overweight or obese (body mass index 27) with knee osteoarthritis who were 50 years of age or older. Enrollment (N = 823) took place from May 2016 through August 2019, and follow-up was completed in April 2021. For a period of 18 months, patients were randomized to either a diet and exercise intervention (n = 414) or an attention control (n = 409) group. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) knee pain score between-group difference during an 18-month period was the primary outcome.

The key findings of this study were;

658 (80.3%) of the 823 randomly assigned patients finished the experiment.

The adjusted mean WOMAC pain score at 18-month follow-up was 5.0 in the diet and exercise group (n = 329) versus 5.5 in the attention control group (n = 316).

Of the seven secondary outcomes, the intervention group significantly outperformed the control group in 5 of them.

In the diet and exercise group and the attention control group, respectively, the mean change in unadjusted 18-month body weight for patients with available data was 7.7 kg (8%) and 1.7 kg (2%) respectively.

169 significant adverse events occurred, but none were unquestionably linked to the research.

Reference:

Messier, S. P., Beavers, D. P., Queen, K., Mihalko, S. L., Miller, G. D., Losina, E., Katz, J. N., Loeser, R. F., DeVita, P., Hunter, D. J., Newman, J. J., Quandt, S. A., Lyles, M. F., Jordan, J. M., & Callahan, L. F. (2022). Effect of Diet and Exercise on Knee Pain in Patients With Osteoarthritis and Overweight or Obesity. In JAMA (Vol. 328, Issue 22, p. 2242). American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.21893