A recent study by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has found that gardening and yardwork may have a beneficial relationship with knee osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. The findings were published in Clinical Rheumatology.
Dr. Grace Lo, associate professor of immunology, allergy and rheumatology at Baylor, explained the motivation behind the study: “Gardening is an activity people are more likely to participate in as they get older, and age is a strong risk factor for osteoarthritis. Because of this, it is important to understand if gardening is harmful or beneficial for knee health so we can know how to advise people who want to participate in this activity.”
The research used data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), a large cohort originally established to search for biomarkers related to knee osteoarthritis. In addition to collecting information on symptoms and radiographic evidence of the condition, Dr. Lo's team included a questionnaire about participants’ history with leisure physical activities such as gardening and yardwork across different stages of life: ages 12-18, 19-34, 35-49, and over 50.
“Those who gardened were less likely to have X-ray evidence of disease, knee pain or both. That was very reassuring from a knee health perspective,” said Lo.
The study confirmed that participation in gardening increases with age and observed that individuals who started gardening between ages 19-34 tended to continue as they grew older.
“This is an activity that has longevity to it, and people stick with it once they start. Even better now, we can see that it looks like it’s beneficial from an osteoarthritis perspective,” Lo stated.
While the report provides preliminary data suggesting that gardening or yardwork does not harm knee osteoarthritis—and may even help—Lo emphasized that more research will be needed due to the observational nature of this first analysis. She noted challenges in studying osteoarthritis development because symptoms often do not appear until decades after initial X-ray signs.
“Though this study was not designed to identify why gardening/yardwork might show a beneficial relationship with knee osteoarthritis, there have been other studies that prove gardening/yardwork promotes health in other dimensions,” Lo added. “Gardening has been associated with better anxiety and depressive symptoms, better mood and greater socialization. And since there have been clinical trials that have shown anti-depressive medications are helpful in reducing pain in osteoarthritis, this could be a possible way that gardening/yardwork is beneficial. Further studies are needed to test if this is a possibility.”
“This study was the first study to evaluate the relationship between gardening/yardwork and osteoarthritis. It is an observational study, so it will be important if similar findings are seen in other cohorts of patients that have this type of information collected in their participants. This first look is very encouraging, and it looks like gardening is beneficial for knee health,” Lo concluded.
Co-authors on the publication include Dr. Sydney T. Tran (rheumatology fellow at Baylor) and Dr. Jessica C. Lee (recent graduate of Baylor’s rheumatology fellowship program), along with Julieann C. Patarini, Timothy E. McAlindon, Andrea M. Kriska, Bonny Rockette‑Wagner, Charles B. Eaton, Marc C. Hochberg, C. Kent Kwoh, Michael C. Nevitt and Jeffrey B. Driban.
The work received support from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases through award K23 AR062127.
