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. 2018 Oct;70(10):1448-1454.
doi: 10.1002/acr.23511.

Are Older Adults With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis Less Active Than the General Population? Analysis From the Osteoarthritis Initiative and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Louise M Thoma  1 , Dorothy Dunlop  2 , Jing Song  2 , Jungwha Lee  2 , Catrine Tudor-Locke  3 , Elroy J Aguiar  3 , Hiral Master  1 , Meredith B Christiansen  1 , Daniel K White  1
Affiliations

Are Older Adults With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis Less Active Than the General Population? Analysis From the Osteoarthritis Initiative and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Louise M Thoma et al. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2018 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To compare objectively measured physical activity in older adults with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA) with similarly aged adults without osteoarthritis (OA) or knee symptoms from the general population.

Methods: We included people ages 50-85 years with symptomatic knee OA from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI, n = 491), and ages 50-85 years from the general population using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, n = 449) data. A uniaxial accelerometer was worn for ≥10 hours/day for ≥4 days in the NHANES group in 2003-2004 and in the OAI group in 2008-2010. We calculated time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA in minutes/day) and described differences in MVPA and demographic variables between the samples. We conducted matched-pairs sensitivity analyses to further evaluate the role of potential confounders.

Results: Both cohorts had similarly low levels of physical activity in age- and sex-specific strata. Time in MVPA ranged from a median of 1-22 minutes/day in people with symptomatic knee OA, and from 1-24 minutes/day in the general population without OA or knee pain. These results were similar in sensitivity analyses.

Conclusion: Time spent in MVPA was similarly low in those with symptomatic knee OA as in older adults without knee pain or OA.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflict of interest: None

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart describing how the analytic samples were derived from the full OAI and NHANES samples.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Median minutes per day (IQR) in MVPA for people with SxOA (from the OAI) and the general population without OA or knee symptoms (General – from the NHANES).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Median minutes per day (IQR) in MVPA for matched cohort for the sensitivity analysis. People with SxOA (n=212) were matched by age, BMI, sex, and college attendance to the general population without OA or knee symptoms (n=212).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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