Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham have received over $6.9 million in total costs from the National Institute on Aging to study knee osteoarthritis. This five-year award is part of a long-term national cohort study, the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST). MOST is a longitudinal study with UAB serving as one of two clinical centers that enrolls and follows participants. Cora E. (Beth) Lewis, M.D., Chair of the UAB Department of Epidemiology and Principal Investigator of UAB’s MOST Study Birmingham clinical center has led as PI since the MOST Study’s inception in 2003.  

According to the National Institute on Aging, Osteoarthritis, or OA, is the most common form of arthritis in adults over 65. The NIA claims that more than half of adults over the age of 65 have radiological (x-ray) evidence of osteoarthritis in at least one joint. Today, 39 million people, or 13% of the U.S. population are 65 and older, and more than half have developed OA. Knee osteoarthritis is a common, chronic painful disorder that is the most frequent cause of mobility disability in older people.

So far, the MOST study has recruited over 4,500 participants reflecting a spectrum of knee OA disease and even some without knee OA. Through the study, researchers intend to identify factors affecting the occurrence and progression of OA, including physical activity and bone and joint structure. The MOST cohort has been followed through 84 months with three investigative themes: mechanical risk factors, causes of knee symptoms and pain, and the long-term disease trajectory of knee OA. The new grant will continue to follow the participants to comprehensively assess pain, structure of the joints, and function.

“The UAB clinical center will be recruiting some additional participants,” said Lewis, “and we will especially be looking to recruit minority participants in the study since little is known about osteoarthritis in this population. Osteoarthritis, especially of the knee, which MOST focuses on, is a major cause of disability in our country, so it is important to understand it better.”

MOST is a collaborative effort developed by investigators at four core sites including Boston University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Iowa, and the University of California, San Francisco, funded by NIH/NIA grants. Within this award, more than $6.9 million was given to UAB’s clinical center for use from June 1, 2023 – February 29, 2028, and almost $47 million was awarded to the overall study. UAB investigators include Cora E. (Beth) Lewis, M.D. and Kelley Pettee Gabriel, Ph.D. from the School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and Adam Taylor, M.D. from UAB’s Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in the Heersink School of Medicine.