Trial Summary

Symptomatic knee osteoarthritis affects more than 33 million people in the United States and is a leading cause of disability and growing medical costs. There is a critical shortage of treatment options for people with knee osteoarthritis, especially because comorbid conditions that complicate treatment selection are highly prevalent in this older adult population. Tai chi, a multidimensional practice that integrates physical, psychosocial, and behavioral components, provides clinically significant improvements in chronic knee osteoarthritis pain. The American College of Rheumatology clinical practice guidelines strongly recommend tai chi as an intervention for knee osteoarthritis. Recent studies conducted during the pandemic suggest that remotely delivered tai chi is a promising and scalable strategy for knee osteoarthritis pain. However, critical gaps remain as to the real-world effectiveness of remotely delivered tai chi for knee osteoarthritis and its implementation across multiple healthcare systems. TAICHIKNEE is an embedded, pragmatic, randomized trial comparing the effects of a 3-month, twice-weekly, remotely delivered, web-based tai chi intervention vs routine care across 5 healthcare systems in 6 geographic regions. The trial will enroll 480 patients who have a clinical diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis. Participants will be evaluated at baseline and 3 months, with additional follow-up at 6 and 12 months. The researchers hypothesize that implementation of remotely delivered tai chi is feasible across the 5 healthcare systems and that tai chi, compared with routine care, will improve physical health (including knee pain and function), mental health, and healthcare utilization. TAICHIKNEE is the first rigorous multisite, embedded, pragmatic trial of a remotely delivered tai chi mind-body program in multiple healthcare systems using web-based technology and designed to improve patient-centered outcomes of knee osteoarthritis. The results of the trial will inform widespread adoption of mind-body approaches for knee osteoarthritis across healthcare systems and lay the groundwork for future trials comparing the effectiveness of different implementation strategies.

NIH Project Information