Original title: Patient and healthcare professional perceptions of weight reduction in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A systematic literature review
Philip G Conaghan, Catherine Rolland, James Frampton, Louis Lavoie +3 · September 2026
Losing weight provides major health benefits for people with knee osteoarthritis, a painful joint condition. Even so, many people struggle to make it happen. Researchers reviewed existing studies to find out what patients and healthcare professionals think about weight loss treatments and what stops them from working. They found four main obstacles: limited knowledge, poor access to programs, knee-specific hurdles to exercising, and everyday challenges with diet and exercise. Patients struggle internally with motivation, deal with physical limits like age and movement troubles, and lack social support. Meanwhile, doctors and nurses face poor communication, their own knowledge gaps, and system problems like tight time and limited resources. Both sides also have mismatched expectations and satisfaction levels about how these treatments work and how providers deliver them. To help, we need better education, better provider training, and stronger communication between patients and professionals.
Imagine you're trying to get fit, but every time you plan a run, your shoes hurt and the weather is bad. You know exercise is good for you, but the pain and the lack of a good path make it hard to start. Your coach also wants you to run, but they don't have time to find you better shoes or a safe route. In this paper, the researchers looked at why people with knee pain and their doctors struggle to make weight loss happen. The pain and the lack of support are like the sore shoes and bad weather, and the doctors' time limits are like the coach's busy schedule.
Knee osteoarthritis affects millions, and weight reduction is one of the most effective ways to ease pain and slow damage. But knowing it works isn't enough—patients and healthcare professionals face real barriers like lack of motivation, limited access, and poor communication. Understanding these barriers is the first step to designing programs that actually help people lose weight and feel better.
The abstract does not specify the quality or risk of bias of the included studies, nor does it provide effect sizes or quantitative outcomes. It notes a gap in evidence on barriers to gastric surgery and pharmacological treatments specifically for knee OA patients, so conclusions may not apply to those interventions.
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Patient and healthcare professional perceptions of weight reduction in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A systematic literature review — Philip G Conaghan, Catherine Rolland, James Frampton et al. — Osteoarthritis and cartilage open — doi:10.1016/j.ocarto.2026.100875
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.