Dietary factors and MRI-Defined synovial inflammation progression in knee osteoarthritis: a longitudinal mixed-effects analysis from the osteoarthritis initiative

Wang Y, Chen M · Frontiers in Aging

Tests diet against inflammation measured inside the joint rather than reported by the patient. Cross-sectionally, higher intake of meat, fish, poultry, eggs and legumes tracked with larger baseline effusion-synovitis volume (β = 0.452, 95% CI 0.075 to 0.829, p = 0.019) — but that did not survive false-discovery-rate correction. Longitudinally, no dietary variable predicted 12-month change in effusion-synovitis, including percentage of energy from fat, and the null held across every sensitivity analysis. The authors read this as diet setting an inflammatory 'set-point' rather than driving short-term change.

Population

659 knees from 620 participants in the Pivotal OAI MR Imaging Analyses incidence-OA sub-cohort

Intervention

Dietary intake by Block Brief 2000 food-frequency questionnaire

Comparator

Lower intake, across dietary variables

Limitations

Twelve months is short for a structural process, food-frequency questionnaires measure diet crudely, and the one positive association did not survive multiplicity correction — which the authors report rather than bury.