Preventing weight gain in early adulthood (defined as age 18 to 21 years) to late midlife (through age 62) may reduce the cost and burden of total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis, according to results from an Australian study published by Hussain et al in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. Investigators grouped nearly 25,000 study participants into six body mass index (BMI) trajectory groups: group 1, classified as having a lower normal to normal BMI (19.7% of participants); group 2, normal BMI to borderline overweight (36.7%); group 3, normal BMI to overweight (26.8%); group 4, overweight to borderline obese (3.5%); group 5, normal BMI to class 1 obesity (10.1%); and group 6, overweight to class 2 obesity (3.2%). Over 12 years of follow-up, a total of 5.4% of participants underwent total knee arthroplasty. The researchers reported that nearly 30% of those arthroplasties could have been avoided if the patients had been able to get to one trajectory group lower by losing about 18 to 26 pounds from early adulthood to late midlife. By avoiding those additional arthroplasties, potentially millions of dollars could also be saved in health-care costs, according to the investigators. In a companion press release on the findings from Monash University, senior author Flavia Cicuttini, PhD, MSc, DLSHTM, said, “Too often we see people with knee pain, advise them to lose weight, only for them to return 5 years later having gained further [weight]. This is a missed opportunity because it is easier to prevent further weight gain than it is to lose it. We need to focus on preventing or slowing weight gain when people first present with any knee pain, even niggling knee pain.”
May 25, 2023