The Role of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in Older Patients Affected by Knee Osteoarthritis: an Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, and is characterized by joint pain and stiffness leading to functional decline and relevant loss in quality of life. The incidence of OA is rising due to the aging population and an increase in some risk factors, such as obesity. Knee OA is the most common OA localization, and symptomatic knee OA is highly prevalent among people aged over 50 years, affecting more than 250 million people worldwide.

Knee OA is a leading cause of pain in older people, and pain of the hip and knee results in physical disability and an increased risk of all-cause mortality. Hip and knee OA together are the eleventh highest contributor to global disability: the years of life lived with OA-related disability increased by 64% from 1990 to 2010 reaching 17 million. OA is a progressive disorder, with different degrees of severity, that requires long-term management with various treatment options over the course of the disease. The goals of treatment for OA are to reduce symptoms and ultimately slow disease progression, which may in turn reduce the impact of OA on the patient's mobility and quality of life, with consequent reduction in healthcare resource needs.

In 2019, the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) published recommendations for the management of knee OA in the form of a treatment algorithm that provides practical guidance for the prioritization of interventions and guides physicians through progressive, logical steps based on the severity of the knee OA signs/symptoms.

The management of knee OA is therefore demanded to several specialists, including general practitioners, rheumatologists, orthopedics and finally geriatricians. However, the exact role of geriatricians in the management of knee OA was poorly studied, whilst the comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is widely used for preventing negative consequences in older people, such as hospitalization or mortality. Moreover, CGA can be used across different settings, from primary care to hospital, with similar beneficial effects in older people. Finally, people affected by knee OA are usually affected by other medical (e.g., dementia, cardiovascular diseases, depression) and non-medical (e.g., loneliness) conditions that can limit the adherence to therapeutic approaches, therefore limiting the efficacy of the interventions suggested in knee OA.