Exercise, healthy food prevents knee pain in adults with diabetes

Daniel White, Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, wrote an article which was a key study for 2015 at the Osteoarthritis Society's international meeting.

The study compared subjects receiving intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) to a group receiving standard diabetes support and education (DSE) to measure knee pain at the end of one year and four years.

White and his colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of the Action for Health in Diabetes study, a randomised intervention of trial adults aged 45 to 76 years who were obese and had Type 2 diabetes mellitus. The Action for Health in Diabetes study began in 2001.

White said that the analysis involved a group of 2,889 subjects, who reported no knee pain at baseline, but were at high risk due to obesity.

The primary method of achieving weight loss was caloric intake restrictions, based on guidelines from the American Diabetes Association. The diet limits total calories from fat to 30 percent while mandating at least 10 percent of calories to be obtained from protein.

Moderate-intensity walking encouraged as a primary type of physical activity for most of the participants.

White said the study concluded that an intensive program of diet and exercise had a small but statistically significant protective effect against the development of knee pain in the short-term among overweight adults with diabetes.

The story is published in Arthritis Care and Research.