The effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on evoked pain and quality of life in Non-Hispanic black women with knee osteoarthritis: a pilot study

Wiggins AM, Strath LJ, McPherson GE, Gower BA, Goss AM, Goodin BR, Sorge RE · BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

Follow-up to the 2020 trial in the group that reported the largest benefit there. WOMAC pain, stiffness and physical function, pain interference, SF-36 physical function and bodily pain, and food knowledge and security changed significantly, and evoked pain fell on the timed-walk and chair-stand tasks; pain severity, depressive symptoms and body weight moved the same way without reaching significance, and temporal summation did not change. Registered as a healthcare intervention rather than run as a controlled trial.

Population

Fourteen non-Hispanic Black women, mean age 56 and mean BMI 41, with knee osteoarthritis; 19 enrolled, 14 with complete data analysed

Intervention

A 6-week low-carbohydrate diet (40 g a day or less) with all groceries supplied by the study

Comparator

None — within-subject, baseline versus 3 and 6 weeks

Limitations

Fourteen people with no control group and no blinding, so every reported change includes regression to the mean, attention and expectation; five of the 19 enrolled were dropped for missing data, and the groceries were delivered, so adherence was supplied rather than tested. Registered NCT04343716; National Institute on Aging pilot funding. It extends the observation to a population the parent trial under-sampled; it does not confirm it.