The weekly massage found to be an efficacious and safe short-term treatment option for knee osteoarthritis (OA), explains the results of a Multisite Randomized Clinical Trial published in the 'Journal of General Internal Medicine'. The present knee OA treatments have a very confined efficacy with evident adverse effects. Thus more exploratory studies are needed to devise various treatment strategies for OA. This study was an attempt for the same, it was aimed to analyze the effects of whole-body massage on the OA symptoms. The reference population was active OA patients on usual daily care and light touch. The baseline assessment was undertaken and followed up further on 8, 16, 24, 36, and 52 weeks. Initially, the study population was on eight weekly treatments of whole-body massage or light-touch methods then they were randomly assigned to twice a week whole-body massage or usual care for 52 weeks. The reference population was continued on the usual care for 24 weeks. The analysis was carried out on the intention-to-treat basis.

Total of 551 patients was screened for eligibility, and 222 adults with knee osteoarthritis were enrolled. Eight-week and fifty two-week assessments were completed by two hundred patients and one hundred seventy-five patients. They were subjected to protocolized full-body massage or light-touch for 60 minutes. The primary outcomes were the Western Ontario, and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index and secondary were the visual analog pain scale, knee range of motion, PROMIS Pain Interference, and timed 50-ft walk. The study results indicated that eight weeks of massage had a statistically and clinically significant improvement in OA symptoms. It was observed that the patients who underwent Eight-week massage treatment as compared to light-touch and usual care showed a significant improvement in physical function, pain, WOMAC score and stiffness. However, at fifty-two week no notable difference in the change was observed among the study groups. There were less adverse events.

Adam Perlman et al. concluded that "Long-term biweekly dose maintained improvement, although did not provide additional benefit after usual care post the 8-week treatment."