Aging
Diet and Health Behaviors Associated with Osteoarthritis Knee Pain During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) Morgan Wolff* Morgan Wolff Sarah Nash Cora Lewis Michael Nevitt David Felson Tuhina Neogi James Torner
Objectives: To understand changes in diet and health behaviors and investigate associations of pain increase with changes in behaviors among a group of older adults with or at risk for osteoarthritis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional mailed survey in the summer of 2022 among participants of the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) following another survey that investigated COVID-19 infection, vaccination, and pain increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. This follow-up survey examined how diet and health behaviors (snacking, sitting down, perceived support to eat healthy, etc.) changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed knee pain increase from the first survey as a function of demographic and behavioral factors using the Chi-squared tests to investigate if diet and health behaviors had an association with pain development or progression.
Results: We mailed 555 surveys, and 502 were returned (90.5%). In univariate analyses, self-reported changes in diet and health behaviors were significantly associated with pain increase. These variables include frequency of eating a healthy and balanced diet, frequency of snacking, and time spent sitting down. These variables also significantly differed between demographic characteristics, especially gender.
Discussion: Among MOST participants, there were significant changes within self-reported diet and health behaviors, with especially evident differences by gender. Increased knee pain during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly associated with these changes in behaviors (light PA, eating a healthy diet, using weight loss products, and skipping meals).