Association of slower walking speed with incident knee osteoarthritis–related outcomes

Abstract

Objective To determine whether slower walking speed was associated with increased risk of incident hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA)-related outcomes. Methods After providing informed consent, community-dwelling participants in the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project completed two home-based interviews and an additional clinic visit for radiographic and physical evaluation. One thousand eight hundred fifty eight non-institutionalized residents age 45 years or older living for at least one year in one of six townships in Johnston County, North Carolina completed the study’s questionnaires and clinical examinations at baseline and at follow-up testing. Walking time was assessed using a manual stopwatch in 2 trials over an 8 foot distance, and walking speed was calculated as the average of both trials. For the hip and knee, we examined 3 outcomes per joint site: radiographic OA (weight-bearing anteroposterior knee radiographs, supine anteroposterior pelvic radiographs of the hip); chronic joint symptoms; and symptomatic OA. Covariates included age, gender, race, education, marital status, body mass index, number of self-reported, health care provider-diagnosed chronic conditions, number of prescriptions, depressive symptoms, self-rated health, number of lower-body functional limitations, smoking, and physical activity. Results Faster walking speed was consistently associated with lower incidence of radiographic (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.79–0.97) and symptomatic knee OA (aOR=0.84, 95% CI=0.75–0.95); slower walking speed was associated with greater incidence of these outcomes across a broad range of different clinical and radiographic OA outcomes. Conclusion Slower walking speed may be a marker for incident knee OA, but other studies must confirm this finding.

Older Parents Benefit More in Health Outcome From Daughters’ Than Sons’ Emotional Care in China

“…These results indicate that the benefit of having daughter(s) for the elderly parents may be more evident with respect to mental health, which is closely related to emotional care, rather than physical health and subjective well-being, which often demands good financial support. It has been shown that financial support could help to provide necessary facilities and a favorable living environment so that ADL disability and poor self-rated health of elders could be avoided even in the presence of a decline in physical health (Feng, Hoenig, Gu, Zeng, & Purser, 2010; Feng, Son, & Zeng, 2015; Purser et al, 2012). It is thus understandable that having daughter(s) did not result in significant benefits for older parents in their ADL capacity, subjective well-being, or deficit index, because, as compared with son(s), Chinese daughter(s) are not as advantageous in providing financial support to their elderly parents.…”

Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis Over 24 Months in Individuals Who Decrease Walking Speed During a 12-Month Period: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

“…12 However, change in walking speed may provide a more sensitive measure of future osteoarthritis risk than an assessment of gait pace at a single time point. To date no prospective studies have examined longitudinal changes in walking speed and risk of rKOA.…”

Composite measures of multi-joint symptoms, but not of radiographic osteoarthritis, are associated with functional outcomes: the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project

“…Our group has previously reported significant associations between slower gait speed and finger joint symptoms, after adjustment for hip and knee symptoms and rOA [3]. The vast majority of studies using gait speed in OA focus on knee OA, with fewer looking at hip involvement [34]. One study assessing knee and ankle rOA and symptoms at these two sites found that knee rOA was independently associated with reduced gait speed [48].…”

“…Three individuals with implausible values were excluded from the analysis resulting in n=1300 for this outcome. Gait speed has been assessed as a performance-based marker of functional limitation in geriatric conditions including OA [3, 5, 33, 34], and the 8-foot walk test is a reliable measure in older adults (intra-observer ICC >0.7, inter-observer ICC>0.5 [35, 36]).…”