A systematic review 1 including 2 studies with a total of 414 subjects was abstracted in DARE. The studies scored 4 and 5 out of 5 on the Jadad scale. The drop-out rates in the two RCTs were high: 36% with glucosamine versus 33% with placebo and 46% with glucosamine versus 35% with placebo. The risk of disease progression was significantly lower with glucosamine than with placebo; the pooled RR was 0.46 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.73, P=0.0011) and the pooled RD was 0.12 (95% CI: - 0.05, -0.19, P=0.0006).
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by severe problems with study quality (very high dropout rate, intention-to-treat analysis not reported) and possibility of publication bias.
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