Analysis of Anthropometric Measurements and Dietary Intake in Patients Undergoing a Multi-Professional Osteoarthritis Education Program (PARQVE-Project Arthritis Recovering Quality of Life by Means of Education)

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) has a major impact on mobility and the loss of productivity of patients, especially knee OA (KOA). Obesity is one of the main risk factors for the incidence and prevalence of KOA. Weight loss alone decreases pain and improves quality of life and functional scores. Objective: To use BMI, body fat, and calorie intake to measure the effect of a multi-professional educational program on patients with KOA and correlate these measurements with subjective questionnaire results. Methods: A total of 198 patients undergoing standard treatment for KOA were randomized to 4 groups. All groups received written and video information regarding KOA. Three groups (1, 2 and 3) also attended two days of lectures 1, 2 and 3 months apart, respectively, whereas group 4 did not. Each group was divided into subgroups A (bimonthly telephone calls) and B (no telephone calls). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at one year for BMI, waist-hip ratio (WHR), percentage of body fat, and calorie intake and with the WOMAC, LEQUESNE, VAS and SF-36 questionnaires. Results: The WHR showed 89.4% of android obesity at baseline and 87.9% at one year without improvement (p = 0.38). Body fat decreased by 0.44% regardless of group or subgroup. Calorie intake was different between groups (p = 0.019) according to phone calls and follow-up (p = 0.03). BMI and body fat percentage were correlated with the WOMAC, WOMAC pain, VAS and LEQUESNE scores at baseline and at reassessment. Weight was correlated with the baseline results of the WOMAC pain (r = 0.175, p = 0.014), VAS (r = 0.155, p = 0.029), LEQUESNE (r = 0.161, p = 0.023), SF-36-PCS (r = ?0.186, p = 0.009) and SF-36-MCS (r = 0.155, p = 0.029) scores and with the one-year results of the WOMAC (r = 0.155, p = 0.029) and WOMAC pain (r = 0.151, p = 0.034) scores. Conclusion: The multi-professional treatment program had very little impacts on the percentage of body fat. This improvement was independent of classes, telephone calls, or improvements in pain, function and quality of life. Calorie intake improvement was influenced by telephone calls and classes but was not associated with objective measurements of/or changes in weight, BMI, or body fat percentage or with subjective improvements.