MONDAY, June 18, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For overweight and obese older adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA), greater weight loss is associated with superior clinical and mechanistic outcomes, according to a study published online June 18 in Arthritis Care & Research.
Stephen P. Messier, Ph.D., from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of the Intensive Diet and Exercise for Arthritis randomized controlled clinical trial, which included 240 overweight and obese older community-dwelling adults with pain and radiographic knee OA. Participants were classified according to weight loss achieved over an 18-month period: <5 percent, ≥5 percent, ≥10 percent, and ≥20 percent.
The researchers found that for pain, function, six-minute walk distance, physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQOL), knee joint compressive force, and interleukin-6, there were significant dose responses to weight loss. Superior clinical and mechanistic outcomes were seen with greater weight loss, with the ≥20 percent weight loss group differentiating itself on all measures versus the <5 percent and ≥5 percent weight loss groups. Compared with the ≥10 percent weight loss group, the ≥20 percent weight loss group had 25 percent less pain and better function, as well as significantly better physical HRQOL.
“A 10 percent weight loss is the established target recommended by the National Institutes of Health as an initial weight loss for overweight and obese adults,” Messier said in a statement. “The importance of our study is that a weight loss of 20 percent or greater — double the previous standard — results in better clinical outcomes and is achievable without surgical or pharmacologic intervention.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
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