Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 2000 Jun;59(6):414–418. doi: 10.1136/ard.59.6.414

Epidemiology of research into interventions for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint

J Chard 1, D Tallon 1, P Dieppe 1
PMCID: PMC1753176  PMID: 10834855

Abstract

OBJECTIVE—To assess the published research base for interventions for osteoarthritis of the knee, and to identify areas in need of further research.
METHODS—Literature searches were conducted on electronic databases (Medline, Embase, ISI, and Cochrane library), bibliographies of existing review articles were hand searched, and a postal questionnaire was sent to members of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. All relevant articles were copied and searched for treatment type, study methodology, statistical results, conclusions, funding source, researcher affiliations, and year of publication, using a predetermined data extraction form.
RESULTS—There have been marked changes in the literature over the period studied (1950-98), with a recent rise in trials of physical therapy, educational interventions, and complementary treatments. However, overall, most research was either drug (59.1%) or surgically (25.6%) related. Most of the studies reported positive results (94%). Research on oral drugs was significantly more likely to provide a positive result than research on any other intervention (p<0.001 by χ2 test). Commercially funded studies were significantly more likely to produce a positive result than non-commercially funded research (p=0.0027 by χ2 test).
CONCLUSIONS—Analysis of time trends indicates that the research agenda does shadow changes in consumer demands. However, there are significant gaps in the research base that need to be considered.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (134.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Callahan C. M., Drake B. G., Heck D. A., Dittus R. S. Patient outcomes following unicompartmental or bicompartmental knee arthroplasty. A meta-analysis. J Arthroplasty. 1995 Apr;10(2):141–150. doi: 10.1016/s0883-5403(05)80120-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Chalmers T. C., Smith H., Jr, Blackburn B., Silverman B., Schroeder B., Reitman D., Ambroz A. A method for assessing the quality of a randomized control trial. Control Clin Trials. 1981 May;2(1):31–49. doi: 10.1016/0197-2456(81)90056-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dickersin K., Min Y. I., Meinert C. L. Factors influencing publication of research results. Follow-up of applications submitted to two institutional review boards. JAMA. 1992 Jan 15;267(3):374–378. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Downs S. H., Black N. The feasibility of creating a checklist for the assessment of the methodological quality both of randomised and non-randomised studies of health care interventions. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1998 Jun;52(6):377–384. doi: 10.1136/jech.52.6.377. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Easterbrook P. J., Berlin J. A., Gopalan R., Matthews D. R. Publication bias in clinical research. Lancet. 1991 Apr 13;337(8746):867–872. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)90201-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Egger M., Zellweger-Zähner T., Schneider M., Junker C., Lengeler C., Antes G. Language bias in randomised controlled trials published in English and German. Lancet. 1997 Aug 2;350(9074):326–329. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)02419-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hochberg M. C., Altman R. D., Brandt K. D., Clark B. M., Dieppe P. A., Griffin M. R., Moskowitz R. W., Schnitzer T. J. Guidelines for the medical management of osteoarthritis. Part I. Osteoarthritis of the hip. American College of Rheumatology. Arthritis Rheum. 1995 Nov;38(11):1535–1540. doi: 10.1002/art.1780381103. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hochberg M. C., Altman R. D., Brandt K. D., Clark B. M., Dieppe P. A., Griffin M. R., Moskowitz R. W., Schnitzer T. J. Guidelines for the medical management of osteoarthritis. Part II. Osteoarthritis of the knee. American College of Rheumatology. Arthritis Rheum. 1995 Nov;38(11):1541–1546. doi: 10.1002/art.1780381104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jadad A. R., Moore R. A., Carroll D., Jenkinson C., Reynolds D. J., Gavaghan D. J., McQuay H. J. Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: is blinding necessary? Control Clin Trials. 1996 Feb;17(1):1–12. doi: 10.1016/0197-2456(95)00134-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jüni P., Witschi A., Bloch R., Egger M. The hazards of scoring the quality of clinical trials for meta-analysis. JAMA. 1999 Sep 15;282(11):1054–1060. doi: 10.1001/jama.282.11.1054. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Moher D., Pham B., Jones A., Cook D. J., Jadad A. R., Moher M., Tugwell P., Klassen T. P. Does quality of reports of randomised trials affect estimates of intervention efficacy reported in meta-analyses? Lancet. 1998 Aug 22;352(9128):609–613. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(98)01085-X. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Puett D. W., Griffin M. R. Published trials of nonmedicinal and noninvasive therapies for hip and knee osteoarthritis. Ann Intern Med. 1994 Jul 15;121(2):133–140. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-121-2-199407150-00010. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Rochon P. A., Gurwitz J. H., Simms R. W., Fortin P. R., Felson D. T., Minaker K. L., Chalmers T. C. A study of manufacturer-supported trials of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of arthritis. Arch Intern Med. 1994 Jan 24;154(2):157–163. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Superio-Cabuslay E., Ward M. M., Lorig K. R. Patient education interventions in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: a meta-analytic comparison with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug treatment. Arthritis Care Res. 1996 Aug;9(4):292–301. doi: 10.1002/1529-0131(199608)9:4<292::aid-anr1790090414>3.0.co;2-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Towheed T. E., Hochberg M. C. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of pharmacological therapy in osteoarthritis of the knee, with an emphasis on trial methodology. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 1997 Apr;26(5):755–770. doi: 10.1016/s0049-0172(97)80043-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Welch H. G., Froehlich G. W. Strategies in writing for a physician audience. J Gen Intern Med. 1996 Jan;11(1):50–55. doi: 10.1007/BF02603487. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES