Current knee osteoarthritis (OA) treatment focuses on reducing pain and disability.  Many older adults assume that knee pain is part of aging and do not seek conventional treatment or find such treatments ineffective and/or unappealing.  We wished to determine prevalence of CAM use among overweight adults with knee OA.  Participants were 74 adults with mild-moderate knee OA who volunteered for a weight loss study.  They were generally older (57.1 ± 7.9 years), Caucasian (75.7%), college educated (57.5%) females (85.1%).  Participants were asked about CAM use and data were compared to a 2002 NCCAM survey.  Older adults with knee OA were more likely to use CAM treatment (87%) compared to a national sample (75%).   Many tried ≥3 modalities.  Most common were glucosamine-chondroitin, heat and topical creams.  Adults with OA were ~4 times more likely to try glucosamine and twice as likely to try yoga and therapeutic massage.  Causacians were more likely to use CAM than African Americans (92.9 vs 66.7%, p = .01), but no differences were evident by age, sex, income or pain.  CAM use is very high in overweight adults with knee OA and more than in the general population.  This suggests a keen interest in self-management techniques.  Communication with providers is crucial for safe, effective, responsible use.  Providers should routinely review CAM use in OA patients.   

TREATMENT	PREVALENCE (%)
Glucosamine-chondroitin	55.4
Exercise	37.8
Heat, Topical Creams	35.1
Losing weight	31.1
Prayer	20.3
Nutritional supplements	14.9
Magnets	13.5
Yoga	12.2
Acupuncture, Massage	10.8
Other	14.8