SynthesisJournal of global health2025
Association between physical activity and knee osteoarthritis: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of global health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Immediate reductions in compressive and shear forces in the knee from gait retraining are associated with slowed cartilage degeneration after 1 year in medial knee osteoarthritis: A retrospective observational cohort study.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2026Observational
- Article
- Joint associations of chronic heat exposure and physical activity with the risk of knee osteoarthritis: a prospective cohort study based on the UK biobank.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Naringin Alleviates Knee Osteoarthritis by Targeting TNF-α and PTGS2: An Integrated Network Pharmacology, Molecular Simulation, and Experimental Validation Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- More time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sleep is associated with a lower incidence of hip or knee osteoarthritis.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Higher Prevalence of Sarcopenia in Knee Osteoarthritis and Its Association with Femoral Intercondylar Cartilage Thickness and Functional Outcomes.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Metabolic Dysregulation in Postmenopause: Implications for Knee Joint Health.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA), a debilitating chronic degenerative joint disease, substantially compromises patients' functional capacity and quality of life. Although physical activity (PA) has been recognised as a modifiable risk factor in the development of KOA, its potential protective role remains debated. To clarify this clinical uncertainty, we conducted a rigorous systematic review and meta-analysis to comprehensively assess the association between PA levels and the risk of incident KOA. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Web of Science databases for published observational studies on the association between PA and knee osteoarthritis. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we selected English literature from inception to publication on 21 September 2024, and assessed study quality according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Our protocol is available on PROSPERO. Results: Our systematic screening identified 14 eligible observational studies (13 cohort studies and one case-control study) involving 507 696 participants with 27 412 incident cases of KOA. A pooled analysis comparing levels of PA intensity showed a 26% increased risk of knee OA for high PA compared with moderate PA (relative risk (RR) = 1.26; 95% CI = 1.17-1.37). In contrast, neither high PA (RR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.84-1.23) nor moderate PA (RR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.84-1.05) showed protective effects compared with low PA reference groups. Stratified analyses showed nonsignificant associations in cohort studies (RR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.87-1.29) compared with case-control studies (RR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.20-0.83). Notably, regional subgroup analyses showed comparable PA-related risks between European (RR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.74-1.38) and North American populations (RR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.81-1.31). Crucially, gender-stratified analyses demonstrated no significant differential risk in males (RR = 1.20; 95% CI = 0.54-2.70) vs. females (RR = 0.73; 95% CI = 0.29-1.82). Conclusions: This systematic review comprehensively demonstrated a dose-dependent relationship between physical activity intensity and the risk of knee osteoarthritis. Our meta-analysis showed that high PA levels significantly increased the risk of knee osteoarthritis compared with moderate PA. In addition, limited evidence suggested that exceeding international PA guidelines may increase the risk of osteoarthritis (RR = 1.18; 95% CI = 1.02-1.35). However, future studies need to be executed to further define the type of activity, optimal dose and duration required to effectively reduce the risk of knee osteoarthritis. Registration: PROSPERO: CRD42024600175.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.