New research from the University of Sydney and the Kolling Institute reveals that obesity, having a knee injury and occupational risks such as shift work and lifting heavy loads are primary causes of knee osteoarthritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, the study was led by Dr Vicky Duong and Associate Professor Christina Abdel Shaheed from Sydney Musculoskeletal Health, a joint initiative between the University of Sydney, Northern Sydney Local Health District and Sydney Local Health District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using data from 130 studies involving people from 20 to 80 years old, the researchers examined over 150 risk factors to determine which were associated with an increased risk of developing knee osteoarthritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knee osteoarthritis is a debilitating condition that affects over 500 million people around the world and is a leading cause of disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research found that addressing lifestyle factors, such as losing weight or adopting a better diet, could significantly improve people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study found that following a mediterranean diet, drinking green tea and eating dark bread could reduce the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-author and Kolling Institute researcher Professor David Hunter said the research identified some key trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWomen were twice as likely to develop the condition than men, and older age was only mildly associated with increased risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Reducing the risk of knee osteoarthritis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Duong, lead author and post-doctoral researcher at the Kolling Institute, said eliminating obesity and knee injuries could potentially reduce the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis by 14 percent across the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe urge governments and the healthcare sector to implement policy reforms that address occupational risks, subsidise knee injury prevention programs, and promote healthy eating and physical activity to reduce obesity,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2506,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,15],"tags":[33],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-2505","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musculoskeletal-research","category-neuroscience-pain-research","category-research-excellence","tag-rehabilitation"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop-300x207.webp",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Knee-osteoarthritis-1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"New research from the University of Sydney and the Kolling Institute reveals that obesity, having a knee injury and occupational risks such as shift work and lifting heavy loads are primary causes of knee osteoarthritis. Published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, the study was led by Dr Vicky Duong and Associate Professor Christina Abdel Shaheed from…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5168,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2505\/revisions\/5168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=2505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}