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