The prevalence and work-related physical factors associated with knee pain in older Thai farmers.
Punnee Peungsuwan, Uraiwan Chatchawan, Rungthip Puntumetakul and 1 others
PMID 31320780WHAT IT FOUND
Knee pain was reported by 154 of 285 older Thai farmers.
Pain lasting more than 12 months was linked with a maximum physical activity load, but this survey cannot show which activities caused it.
Key findings
01Knee pain was reported by 154 of 285 older Thai farmers, a prevalence of 54.04%.
02The survey found an association between knee pain lasting more than 12 months and a maximum physical activity load.
03The survey found no associations between knee pain in the past 7 days or between 7 days and 12 months and the factors examined.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was a cross-sectional survey, so it measured knee pain and physical activity at one time point and cannot show that maximum physical activity load caused knee pain. The paper says people without knee pain did not complete the second part, but it also presents demographic and physical activity data for 285 participants, so it is unclear which questions all participants answered. Knee pain was screened with a questionnaire and classified using American College of Rheumatology criteria, but the paper does not report clinical examination or imaging, so it cannot confirm that the pain was due to knee osteoarthritis. The participants were older Thai farmers from one rural province, so the findings may not apply to other ages, occupations, or countries. The Discussion mentions walking, standing and side sitting, but the reported associations are for maximum physical activity load, not for those activities separately.
Declared interests
Funded by BNOJPH, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that maximum physical activity load causes knee pain. This was a cross-sectional survey, and it reports an association with knee pain lasting more than 12 months, not a tested treatment effect.