Effectiveness of curcuminoids in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

© 2017 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Aim: To critically appraise and evaluate the evidence for effectiveness of curcuminoids in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) in adults. Methods: We conducted electronic searches in Medline, Embase, AMED, Cinahl and the Cochrane library. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated the effectiveness of orally-administered curcuminoids in OA in adults, and assessed risk of bias using the Cochrane risk of bias criteria. We used a random-effect model for meta-analysis. Results: We included seven studies with a total of 797 participants with primarily knee OA. All studies were conducted in Asia. The overall risk of bias was moderate. Compared with placebo, curcuminoids significantly reduced knee pain (visual analogue scale): (standardized mean difference: −3.45; 95% CI: −5.52 to −1.38; I2 = 95% P = 0.001), and improved quality of life (Lequesne pain-function index): (mean difference: −2.69; 95% CI: −3.48 to −1.90; I2 = 0% P