Fish oil in knee osteoarthritis: a randomised clinical trial of low dose versus high dose

Study answer

What this study found

High-dose fish oil did not outperform low-dose fish oil in knee osteoarthritis and was not associated with better structural outcomes. At 2 years, the high-dose group had worse WOMAC pain and function than the low-dose group in the intention-to-treat analysis, with between-group differences of 3.3 for pain (p=0.009) and 8.5 for function (p=0.032); the per-protocol analyses were also significant in favor of low-dose fish oil. MRI outcomes showed no meaningful between-group difference in cartilage volume loss or bone marrow lesion change over 2 years. Adverse events were generally similar, but…

Study & population

Randomized, 1:1, parallel-group clinical trial conducted at three Australian centres.

Intervention

Participants were randomized to daily oral fish oil for 24 months.

Key limitation

The trial compared two active fish oil doses rather than fish oil versus placebo, so it cannot determine whether either dose is superior to no supplementation.

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Original abstract