The relation of activity patterns with incident slow gait speed over 4 years in adults with knee osteoarthritis: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Nurten Gizem Tore; Sydney Liles; David M Werner; Rebecca J Cleveland; Tom Videitch Bye; Yvonne Golightly; Jason T Jakiela; Daniel K White

doi:10.1016/j.joca.2025.06.002

The relation of activity patterns with incident slow gait speed over 4 years in adults with knee osteoarthritis: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 Jun 6:S1063-4584(25)01053-2. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2025.06.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nurten Gizem Tore¹, Sydney Liles², David M Werner³, Rebecca J Cleveland⁴, Tom Videitch Bye⁵, Yvonne Golightly⁶, Jason T Jakiela⁷, Daniel K White⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Osmaniye, Turkey. Electronic address: gizemtore@hotmail.com.
² Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, United States of America. Electronic address: scliles@udel.edu.
³ College of Allied Health Professions, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States of America. Electronic address: dwerner@unmc.edu.
⁴ Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States of America. Electronic address: becki@unc.edu.
⁵ Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, United States of America. Electronic address: tkbye@udel.edu.
⁶ College of Allied Health Professions, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, United States of America. Electronic address: ygolightly@unmc.edu.
⁷ Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC, United States of America. Electronic address: jakielajt@wssu.edu.
⁸ Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, United States of America. Electronic address: dkw@udel.edu.

PMID: 40484272
DOI: 10.1016/j.joca.2025.06.002

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe activity patterns in adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA) and to examine the relation of patterns with incident slow gait speed over 4 years.

Design: Using data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, we included adults with or at high risk of knee OA who walked > 1.0 m/s during a 20-meter walk at baseline, i.e., did not have slow gait speed. To determine activity patterns, we reduced the dimensions of accelerometer data (ActiGraph GTM1) using a multidimensional Multilevel Functional Principal Components Analysis to calculate between-subject principal component (PC) scores. We estimated the association of the top and bottom tertiles' PC scores with incident slow gait speed over 4 years (risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals) referenced to the middle tertile, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: We identified four activity patterns (PCs): 1) high activity, 2) high evening activity, 3) high morning and evening activity, and 4) very high morning activity. Those whose daily activity patterns best matched with the pattern PC2 or PC4, were found to have 0.60 [0.37, 0.96] and 0.39 [0.22, 0.71] times the risk of developing slow gait speed, respectively; while those whose daily activity patterns least matched PC3, were found to have 1.77 [1.19, 2.62] times the risk.

Conclusions: Daily activity patterns may be related to the development of slow gait speed in adults with or at risk for knee OA.

Trial registration: NCT00080171.

Keywords: Activity patterns; Functional limitation; Knee osteoarthritis; Slow gait speed.

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00080171