Author(s)

Shinichiro Sato¹, Yuta Nemoto², Noriko Takeda³, Yoshinori Kitabatake⁴, Kazushi Maruo⁵, Takashi Arao⁶

¹Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Human Arts and Sciences, Saitama, Japan.
²Research Team for Social Participation and Community Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan.
³Division of Liberal Arts, Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴Department of Health Sciences, Saitama Prefectural University, Saitama, Japan.
⁵Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁶Meiji Yasuda Life Foundation of Health and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan.

Objective: Knee pain is commonly observed among older adults. Therefore, the prevention of knee pain in older adults is a major public health issue. This study aimed to clarify factors relevant to knee pain among older adults. Methods: This study targeted all independent older adults (N = 6661) living in a local municipality in Japan. Participants’ health status and lifestyle habits were surveyed using a questionnaire. The survey was conducted from 15 January to 14 February 2016. Relationships between knee pain and physical activity, sitting time, nutrition, drinking, smoking, or body mass index (BMI) were examined using logistic regression analysis. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for several confounding factors were calculated. Results: Older adults of 5311 responded to the questionnaire and 1843 reported knee pain. The prevalence of knee pain was 34.8%. Knee pain was significantly associated with BMI (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.51 - 0.69, P < 0.001 in the group of normal range, OR: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.29 - 0.51, P < 0.001 in the group of <18.0), nutrition status (OR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.54 - 0.75, P < 0.001), and physical activity (OR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.71 - 0.92, P = 0.001). Conclusions: This study suggests that one in three independently-living older adults experiences chronic knee pain and that physical activity, BMI, and nutritional status are associated with knee pain.

Complete Survey, Physical Activity, Prevalence Rate, Sitting Time

Sato, S. , Nemoto, Y. , Takeda, N. , Kitabatake, Y. , Maruo, K. and Arao, T. (2020) Factors Relevant to Knee Pain among Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Complete Cross-Sectional Study. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 10, 277-287. doi: 10.4236/ojpm.2020.1011020.