Back, foot pain, knee osteoarthritis link

BOSTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Those with knee osteoarthritis are also likely to suffer foot, elbow and low back pain, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, New England Baptist Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital -- all in Boston -- not only associated knee osteoarthritis with low back pain but with pain in the foot and elbow on the same side as the affected knee.

The study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, found 57.4 percent of knee osteoarthritis patients reported pain in their lower back -- the higher the knee pain scores, the more likely, the low back pain. Low back pain was associated with foot pain and elbow pain as well.

"Our findings show that pain in the low back, foot and elbow may be associated with greater knee pain, confirming that symptomatic knee osteoarthritis rarely occurs in isolation," study leader Dr. Pradeep Suri of Harvard said in a statement. "Future studies are needed to determine whether treatment of pain occurring elsewhere in the body will improve therapy outcomes for knee osteoarthritis."

Suri and colleagues looked at 1,389 study participants -- ages 45-79 -- diagnosed with knee pain due to osteoarthritis.