Among those without symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (SOA), subjective knee crepitus predicts incident SOA longitudinally, with most cases occurring in those with pre-existing tibiofemoral radiographic osteoarthritis (ROA) but without frequent knee pain, a recent study found. Knees without baseline SOA were included in this study; there were 3,495 participants (42.2% male) with mean age of 61.1 (9.2) years, and mean BMI of 28.2 (4.7) kg/m². Crepitus frequency was assessed using a question from the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) at baseline, 12-, 24-, and 36-month visits. Frequent knee pain and radiographs were assessed at baseline and annual visits up to 48-months. Researchers found:

• Odds of incident SOA were higher with greater frequency of crepitus (never, rarely, sometimes, often, and always); adjusted odds ratios were (referent), 1.5, 1.8, 2.2, 3.0.
• The group at Osteoarthritis Initiative baseline with ROA but without symptoms contributed 26% of the observations, but more than 75% of the incident SOA cases.