Positive Health Online

Abstract

CHARD, TALLON and DIEPPE, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK. J.a.chard@bristol.ac.uk reviewed (20 references) the epidemiology of research into interventions for osteoarthritis of the knee.

Background

Methodology

The authors aimed to assess the published research base for interventions for osteoarthritis of the knee joint by performing literature searches of the databases; Medline, Embase, ISI and The Cochrane Library, bibliographies of review articles and a postal questionnaire sent to members of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. All articles were searched for treatment type, study methodology, statistical results, conclusions, funding source, researcher affiliations, and year of publication using a predetermined data extraction form.

Results

The authors reported marked changes in the literature over the period studied (1950-98) with a recent increase in trials of physical therapy, educational interventions and complementary treatments. However, overall most research involved drugs (59.1%) or was surgically related (25.6%). Most of the studies reported positive results (94%). Research on oral drugs was significantly more likely to produce a positive result than any other intervention (p<0.001). Commercially funded studies were significantly likely to produce a positive result than non-commercially funded research (p=0.0027).

Conclusion

The authors concluded that analysis of time trends indicates that the research agenda in osteoarthritis does shadow changes in consumer demands but, that there were significant gaps in the research base that need to be considered.

References

Chard et al. Epidemiology of research into interventions for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint. Annals of Rheumatic Disease 59(6): 414-8. Jun 2000.