A staggering 14 million people in the US have osteoarthritis of the knee, with almost half having severe enough symptoms to be eligible for a knee replacement, a study co-authored by Professor David Hunter reveals.

In an analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey 2007–08 the research team discovered that up to 8 million of the cases were in adults under the age of 65.

The findings support an evolving view that OA is not just an older persons disease, the authors say.

“Policymakers should recognise that extant therapies and future treatments for knee OA, such as cost-effective disease-modifying drugs may have a larger potential patient pool than previously realised,” they wrote in the study published in Arthritis Care and Research. 

The data also highlighted the need for treatment programs with proven long-term efficacy, they said.