In April of this year, the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, awarded Brian Focht (Human Sciences) and his colleague Kevin Hackshaw (Medicine) over $2.8M to develop efficacious and sustainable lifestyle interventions in health promotion and disease prevention efforts for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), especially those who are overweight. OA is a prevalent chronic degenerative disease that is a primary cause of mobility disability in the U.S. Obesity is a primary modifiable risk factor for the progression of symptomatic knee OA that is associated with increased pain and an increased risk of functional limitations. Unfortunately, access to comprehensive weight management programs for overweight knee OA patients remains limited. Effective community partnerships are needed to deliver widely accessible lifestyle interventions to prevent obesity and mobility disability in this population.
The study, entitled Comprehensive Lifestyle Intervention Program for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients (CLIP-OA), includes a two-arm, 12-month randomized controlled trial, in collaboration with the Central Ohio Arthritis Foundation (AF), to determine the comparable efficacy of a community-based exercise and dietary weight loss (EX+DWL) program. The results of the EX+DWL program will be compared to the AF’s Walk With Ease EX program, which is now the focus of AF’s self-management programming.
The central hypothesis is that the EX+DWL intervention will be a safe, efficacious approach that produces superior improvements in mobility disability and the secondary outcomes of weight loss, pain reduction and improved quality of life relative to the AF’s Walk with Ease EX program. This hypothesis is formulated on the basis of strong preliminary data demonstrating that the EX+DWL intervention yields meaningful improvements in these outcomes in knee OA patients as well as obese older adults at risk for mobility disability. At the end of this project, the researchers expect to have determined the comparative effectiveness of these two community-based interventions. In short, the primary positive impact of the proposed trial is that the results could alter the AF’s approach to the management of the functional consequences and symptoms of knee OA in communities nationwide.
For more information about this award, please contact Brian Focht.