Osteoarthritis year in review 2025: Epidemiology and Therapy.

Aim: To summarise key epidemiological and therapeutic research on osteoarthritis (OA) published between April 2024 and March 2025.

Methods: A narrative review was conducted using the MEDLINE database, focusing on English-language studies involving human participants published between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. Eligible studies included observational longitudinal studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and phase II-IV randomised controlled trials (RCTs) examining OA treatment and epidemiology.

Contributions of injury deaths to changes in life expectancy and disparity: A comparative analysis of G7 countries over two decades.

Background: Despite the high level of economic development in the Group of Seven (G7) countries, injury deaths remain a public health concern in these countries. This paper examines the contribution of injury deaths to changes in life expectancy (LE) and life disparity (LD) in the G7 countries.

Methods: We used annual data from the WHO mortality database to compute LE and LD during 2001-03 and 2017-19.

Proportion of acceptable symptom state nearly tripled with improvements in patient-reported outcomes for all symptom state subgroups: A registry study of over 15,000 osteoarthritis patients in a digital education and exercise therapy.

Objective: This study investigated trajectories of patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) among participants of a digital education and exercise therapy for knee and hip osteoarthritis.

Methods: A longitudinal observational study among individuals aged 40+ years who participated in the digital program. Participants completed PASS (yes/no) at enrolment and at least one follow-up during one year after enrolment (n=15,253).

Change in willingness for surgery and risk of joint replacement after an education and exercise program for hip/knee osteoarthritis: A longitudinal cohort study of 55,059 people.

Background: Numerous studies report that education and exercise interventions can shift people's willingness to undergo joint replacement surgery for osteoarthritis. We aimed to investigate whether becoming unwilling to undergo surgery following an education and exercise intervention for hip and knee osteoarthritis is associated with lower probability of receiving actual surgery.

Methods And Findings: This was a register-based cohort study including people from the Swedish Osteoarthritis Register who underwent a 3-month education and exercise intervention for knee or hip osteoarthritis.

Reliability of digitally instructed self-reported 30-second chair stand test for lower extremity function.

Objective: The 30-s Chair Stand Test (30s CST), a valid and reliable test evaluating lower extremity physical function, has been integrated into a digital eHealth program. We aimed to evaluate the agreement (inter-rater reliability) between digital self-assessment and in-person physiotherapist assessment as well as intra-rater test-retest reliability of digital self-assessment among persons with hip or knee osteoarthritis.

Design: Eligible participants with hip or knee osteoarthritis were identified from the digital treatment database.

Impact of an intervention for osteoarthritis based on exercise and education on metabolic health: a register-based study using the SOAD cohort.

Objective: This study evaluated the effects of a 6-week osteoarthritis (OA) exercise and education intervention on metabolic health markers, including blood pressure (BP), glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), cholesterol levels and weight in individuals with both OA and diabetes.

Methods: Data originated from the Swedish Osteoarthritis and Diabetes cohort, which is composed of the Swedish Osteoarthritis Register (SOAR) and National Diabetes Register. We included individuals diagnosed with OA and diabetes who underwent the intervention between January 2008 and December 2019, matched with controls with diabetes who did not based on birth year, sex, OA site (hip/knee) and OA diagnosis year.

Temporal trends of psychiatric disorders incidence by sex, education and immigration status among young and middle-aged adults in Sweden, 2004-2019.

Objective: To explore temporal changes in incidence of major psychiatric disorders across sociodemographic subgroups in Sweden.

Methods: This population-based open cohort study included all individuals born during 1958-1994 and residing in Sweden at any time during 2004-2019. We identified psychiatric disorders registered in inpatient and outpatient specialist care.

Physical health in young males and risk of chronic musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases by middle age: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal disease are among the leading causes of disability in middle-aged and older people. Health and lifestyle factors in youth have known associations with cardiovascular or respiratory disease in adulthood, but largely unknown associations with musculoskeletal disease.

Methods And Findings: We included approximately 40,000 18-year-old Swedish males, who completed their conscription examination in 1969 to 1970, followed up until age of 60 years.

Two-Thirds Maintain High Adherence to Digital Education and Exercise Therapy With Comparable Outcomes Across Adherence Clusters: A Registry Study Including Data From Over 14 000 Patients in Sweden.

To explore trajectories of 12-week adherence to a digital education and exercise therapy for knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA), associations with baseline characteristics, and trajectories of patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) up to 1-year follow-up. Retrospective cohort (registry) study. Weekly data on adherence (ie, the percentage of completed activities [exercises, lessons, and quizzes]) were obtained over 12 weeks (n = 14 097).

Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases and Risk of Dementia: A Nested Case-Control Study.

Objective: To investigate the associations between rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) and incident dementia using population register-based data.

Methods: This nested case-control study was conducted based on a cohort of residents in the Skåne region, Sweden, aged 50 years and older in 2009 without doctor-diagnosed dementia during 1998 to 2009 (n = 402,825). Individuals with a new main diagnosis of dementia during 2010 to 2019 were identified as incident patients with dementia (n = 22,131).

Twenty-year trajectories of morbidity in individuals with and without osteoarthritis.

Objectives: To identify multimorbidity trajectories over 20 years among incident osteoarthritis (OA) individuals and OA-free matched references.

Methods: Cohort study using prospectively collected healthcare data from the Skåne region, Sweden (~1.4 million residents).

Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy for a Degenerative Meniscus Tear Is Not Cost Effective Compared With Placebo Surgery: An Economic Evaluation Based on the FIDELITY Trial Data.

Background: In patients with a degenerative tear of the medial meniscus, recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews have shown no treatment benefit of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) over conservative treatment or placebo surgery. Yet, advocates of APM still argue that APM is cost effective. Giving advocates of APM their due, we note that there is evidence from the treatment of other musculoskeletal complaints to suggest that a treatment may prove cost effective even in the absence of improvements in efficacy outcomes, as it may lead to other benefits, such as diminished productivity loss and reduced costs, and so the question of cost effectiveness needs to be answered for APM.

Digital Self-management, Analgesic Use, and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Knee or Hip Osteoarthritis.

Objective: To investigate changes in analgesic use before and after participation in a digital first-line treatment program (exercise, patient education) in persons with knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA) and to explore associations between these changes in medication use and participant-reported pain and function.

Design: Retrospective cohort study with pre-post measures.

Setting: Community setting.

The coexistence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity is associated with worse pain outcomes following exercise for osteoarthritis: A cohort study on 80,893 patients.

Objectives: To investigate how the co-occurrence of diabetes, hypertension and overweight/obesity is associated with pain following an exercise intervention for knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Register-based cohort study. We included people from the Swedish Osteoarthritis Register who underwent education and exercise for knee or hip OA.

Changes in educational inequalities in knee and hip osteoarthritis surgery and non-surgery specialist care visits over time in Sweden.

Objective: To examine changes in prevalence and socioeconomic inequalities in knee and hip OA outcomes, in more specific surgery and non-surgery specialist care visits, from 2001 to 2011 in Sweden and to what extent sociodemographic factors can explain the changes.

Design: We included all individuals aged ≥35 years resident in Sweden from 2001 to 2011. Individual-level data was retrieved from the Swedish Interdisciplinary Panel.

The contributions of avoidable causes of death to gender gap in life expectancy and life disparity in the US and Canada: 2001-2019.

Objectives: This study measures public health policies' and healthcare system's influence, by assessing the contributions of avoidable deaths, on the gender gaps in life expectancy and disparity (GGLD and GGLD, respectively) in the United States (US) and Canada from 2001 to 2019.

Methods: To estimate the GGLE and GGLD, we retrieved age- and sex-specific causes of death from the World Health Organization's mortality database. By employing the continuous-change model, we decomposed the GGLE and GGLD by age and cause of death for each year and over time using females as the reference group.

Patient acceptable symptom state and treatment failure threshold values for work productivity and activity Impairment and EQ-5D-5L in osteoarthritis.

Objective: To estimate patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) and treatment failure (TF) threshold values for Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) measure and EQ-5D-5L among people with hip or knee osteoarthritis (OA) 3 and 12 months following participation in a digital self-management intervention (Joint Academy®).

Methods: Among the participants, we computed work and activity impairments scores (both 0-100, with a higher value reflecting higher impairment) and the Swedish hypothetical- (range: - 0.314 to 1) and experience-based (range: 0.

Weekly pain trajectories among people with knee or hip osteoarthritis participating in a digitally delivered first-line exercise and education treatment.

Objective: Digital self-management programs are increasingly used in the management of osteoarthritis (OA). Little is known about heterogeneous patterns in response to these programs. We describe weekly pain trajectories of people with knee or hip OA over up to 52-week participation in a digital self-management program.

Income-Related Inequality Changes in Osteoarthritis First-Line Interventions: A Cohort Study.

Objective: To examine income-related inequality changes in the outcomes of an osteoarthritis (OA) first-line intervention.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Swedish health care system.

Inflammatory rheumatic diseases and the risk of drug use disorders: a register-based cohort study in Sweden.

To investigate the association between chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (CIRD) and drug use disorder (DUD). Individuals aged ≥ 30 years in 2009 that met the following conditions were included: residing in the Skåne region, Sweden, with at least one healthcare contact in person and no history of DUD (ICD-10 codes F11-F16, F18-F19) during 1998-2009 (N = 649,891). CIRD was defined as the presence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), or systemic lupus erythematosus.

Digitally delivered education and exercises for patients with hand osteoarthritis-An observational study.

Hand osteoarthritis (OA) is a common form of OA, for which education and exercise are considered the first-line treatment. The aim of the present study was to examine pain and perceived hand function in participants following 3 months of digitally delivered first-line treatment for hand OA. Three-hundred-and-seventy-nine of 846 participants with clinical signs and symptoms of hand OA completed the study.