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April 11, 2022
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Walking, maximum-level activity reduce odds of cartilage loss in knee osteoarthritis

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Increasing rates of walking, standing or maximum-level activity is associated with reductions in cartilage loss in knee osteoarthritis, according to a speaker at the 2022 OARSI World Congress.

“Physical activity is consistently recommended for managing knee OA,” S. Reza Jafarzadeh, PhD, of the Boston University School of Medicine, said in his presentation.

running on the treadmill
“Our findings support current guidelines that recommend physical activity as a management strategy for knee osteoarthritis,” S. Reza Jafarzadeh, PhD, told attendees. Source: Adobe Stock.

However, there are many different types of physical activity measures that can be assessed in many ways, according to Jafarzadeh.

“It is unclear which could have a good outcome,” he said.

He noted that the impacts of walking, sitting, standing or lying down are unknown. It is also uncertain whether survey data or accelerometry are sufficient measures of physical activity.

“[Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE)] score can complement accelerometry-based measures,” he said. “But there are also limitations, including recall bias, poor reliability and poor repeatability.”

The purpose of the current study was to quantify the impact of multiple physical activity measures from both survey and accelerometry data on cartilage loss over 2 years. The group also aimed to characterize effects of various physical activity measures. All findings were culled from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) trial.

The analysis included 1,462 patients with a mean age of 61 years. The cohort was 59% women, 13% Black and had a mean BMI of just more than 28.

Results showed that the combined effects of walking, standing or maximum-level activity had a beneficial impact on cartilage loss at 2 years.

“Odds of cartilage loss decreased by 5% per half a decile increase in physical activity,” Jafarzadeh said. “Sensitivity analysis replacing walking time with step count showed similar findings.”

Conversely, time spent lying down was associated with an increase in cartilage loss at 2 years.

“This is the first study to quantify the combined effect of physical activity while allowing counteracting effects,” Jafarzadeh said.

He added that walking time was the highest contributor to decreasing cartilage loss.

“Our findings support current guidelines that recommend physical activity as a management strategy for knee osteoarthritis.”