Recreational Activity Not tied With Arthritis Knee Pain: study

The effect of physical activity on the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis (OA) is unclear. The researchers undertook this study to examine the association between recreational physical activity and event knee osteoarthritis outcomes using comparable definitions of physical activity and osteoarthritis.

Data were obtained from 6 global, population-based cohorts of participants with and without knee osteoarthritis. Eligible participants had no evidence of knee osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis at baseline. Participants were followed for 5-12 years for event outcomes including: 1) radiographic knee osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence [C/L] grade ≥2)

2) painful radiographic knee osteoarthritis (radiographic osteoarthritis with knee pain)

3) OA-related knee pain.

Self-reported recreational physical activity included sports and walking/cycling activities and was measured as metabolic equivalents (METs) of the task as days per week at baseline. Risk ratios (RRs) were calculated and pooled using individual participant data meta-analysis. The secondary analysis evaluated the relationship between physical activity, defined as time spent in recreational physical activity (hours per week), and event knee osteoarthritis outcomes.

Results of the study:

• Based on a total of 5,065 participants, the pooled RR estimates for the association of MET days per week with painful radiographic osteoarthritis radiographic osteoarthritis and osteoarthritis-related knee pain were not significant.

• Similarly, analysis of hours spent per week in physical activity did not show a significant correlation with all outcomes.

Thus, the researchers concluded that their findings show that whole-body, physiological energy expenditure during recreational activities and time spent in physical activity are not associated with event knee osteoarthritis outcomes.

Reference:

Gates, L.S., Perry, T.A., Golightly, Y.M., Nelson, A.E., Callahan, L.F., Felson, D., Nevitt, M., Jones, G., Cooper, C., Batt, M.E., Sanchez-Santos, M.T. and Arden, N.K. (2022), Recreational Physical Activity and Risk of Incident Knee Osteoarthritis: An International Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant–Level Data. Arthritis Rheumatol, 74: 612-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.42001

Keywords:

Recreational, Physical, Activity, Risk, Incident, Knee, Osteoarthritis, International, Meta-Analysis, Individual, Participant, Level, Data, Lucy S. Gates,Thomas A. Perry,Yvonne M. Golightly,Amanda E. Nelson,Leigh F. Callahan,David Felson,Michael Nevitt,Graeme Jones,Cyrus Cooper,Mark E. Batt,Maria T. Sanchez-Santos,Nigel K. Arden, Arthritis & Rheumatology