The Effectiveness of Olive Oil in Controlling Morning Inflammatory Pain of Phalanges and Knees Among Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Hekmatpou D, Mortaji S, Rezaei M, Shaikhi M · Rehabilitation Nursing

Five arms compared over 12 weeks. Pain scores, painful joint counts and swollen joint counts all differed across groups, with the olive-oil massage arm separating on DAS28. The authors' own ranking places topical olive oil first among the five, ahead of piroxicam gel.

Population

Women with rheumatoid arthritis, Arak, Iran

Intervention

Topical extra-virgin olive oil massage for 12 weeks

Comparator

Piroxicam gel, paraffin oil, dry massage, or routine drugs alone

Limitations

Convenience sampling into five arms of twelve, rheumatoid rather than osteoarthritis, topical rather than dietary, unblinded by construction (paraffin, gel and dry massage feel different), and no placebo arm as such. Analysed with Friedman and post-hoc LSD tests, which do not control multiplicity across five groups.