More time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sleep is associated with a lower incidence of hip or knee osteoarthritis
Open Access
- 3 July 2026
- journal article
- Published by BMJ in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine
- Vol. 12 (3) , e003144
Abstract
Introduction: Osteoarthritis is the second most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder and mostly affects hip and knee joints. Movement behaviours have been associated with the incidence of osteoarthritis. However, previous studies have mainly relied on self-reported questionnaires. Moreover, the inherently compositional nature of 24-hour movement behaviours has not yet been considered. Objective: This prospective study aims to investigate the association between objective device-measured movement behaviours and incident hip and knee osteoarthritis, accounting for the compositional nature of movement behaviours. Methods: Data from the UK Biobank cohort were used, which included individuals aged 40–69 years old. Seven days movement behaviours were measured with a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer. Incident hip and knee osteoarthritis cases were prospectively ascertained on hospital inpatient data. Compositional Cox proportional hazard models were used. Results: 85 706 individuals were included in the study between 2013 and 2015. During a mean follow-up of 7.6 years, 5308 participants were diagnosed with hip and knee osteoarthritis. Results showed that reallocating 30 min/day to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity from sedentary time (HR=0.98, 95% CI 0.97 to 0.99) or from light physical activity (HR=0.94, 95% CI 0.92 to 0.96) was associated with lower incidence of hip and knee osteoarthritis. Similarly, reallocating 30 min/day to sleep from sedentary time (HR=0.97, 95% CI 0.96 to 0.99) or from light physical activity (HR=0.93, 95% CI 0.92 to 0.95) was associated with lower incidence hip and knee osteoarthritis. Conclusion: Using objective measures of movement behaviours, this study provides evidence that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sleep may play important roles in hip and knee osteoarthritis prevention, while accounting for the other movement behaviours. Further research is needed to understand whether the associations are causal.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mechanisms underlying the interplay between autophagy and the inflammasome in age-related diseases: Implications for exercise immunologyAgeing Research Reviews, 2025
- The relationship between obesity and obstructive sleep apnea in four community-based cohorts: an individual participant data meta-analysis of 12,860 adultseClinicalMedicine, 2025
- Physical activity patterns, genetic susceptibility, and risk of hip/knee osteoarthritis: a prospective cohort study based on the UK BiobankOsteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2022
- Recreational Physical Activity and Risk of Incident Knee Osteoarthritis: An International Meta‐Analysis of Individual Participant–Level DataArthritis & Rheumatology, 2022
- Changes in physical inactivity during supervised educational and exercise therapy in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A prospective cohort studyThe Knee, 2020
- Association of Long-term Strenuous Physical Activity and Extensive Sitting With Incident Radiographic Knee OsteoarthritisJAMA Network Open, 2020
- The different influence of high levels of physical activity on the incidence of knee OA in overweight and obese men and women-a gender specific analysisOsteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2019
- Association of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity With MortalityJAMA, 2015
- zCompositions — R package for multivariate imputation of left-censored data under a compositional approachChemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2015
- Variations in blood supply allocations for quadrupedal and for bipedal posture and locomotionAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1989