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Multicenter Study
. 2013 Jun;21(6):789-95.
doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2013.03.001. Epub 2013 Mar 21.

Physical activity, alignment and knee osteoarthritis: data from MOST and the OAI

Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Physical activity, alignment and knee osteoarthritis: data from MOST and the OAI

D T Felson et al. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effect of physical activity on knee osteoarthritis (OA) development in persons without knee injury and according to knee alignment.

Design: We combined data from Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) and Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), studies of persons with or at high risk of OA. Subjects had long limb and repeated posteroanterior knee radiographs and completed the physical activity survey for the elderly (PASE). We studied persons without radiographic OA and excluded knees with major injury and without long limb films. We followed subjects 30 months (in MOST) and 48 months (in OAI) for one of two incident outcomes: (1) symptomatic tibiofemoral OA (radiographic OA and knee pain), or (2) tibiofemoral narrowing. 'Active' persons were those with PASE score in the highest quartile by gender. We examined risk of OA in active group using logistic regression adjusting for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), Western Ontario and McMaster Arthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score, Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grade (0 or 1), and study of origin. We also analyzed knees from malaligned and neutrally aligned limbs.

Results: The combined sample comprised 2,073 subjects (3,542 knees) with mean age 61 years. The cumulative incidence of symptomatic tibiofemoral OA was 1.12% in the active group vs 1.82% in the others (odds ratio (OR) among active group 0.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3, 1.3). Joint space narrowing occurred in 3.41% of knees in the active group vs 4.04% in the others (OR among active group 0.9 (95% CI 0.5, 1.5)). Results did not differ by alignment status.

Conclusions: Physical activity in the highest quartile did not affect the risk of developing OA.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

At the end of the manuscript text, under a subheading "Competing interest statement" every author must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could potentially and inappropriately influence (bias) their work and conclusions. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and research grants or other funding.

The existence of competing interests is common and often inevitable. Competing interests are not inherently unethical, but not declaring them is.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Subjects in this analysis
Figure 1
Figure 1
Subjects in this analysis

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