NURSING 4 Assignment: Fish Oil Efficacy in Osteoarthritis Treatment

This nursing assignment examines the use of fish oil as a treatment for osteoarthritis, focusing on a case study of a 65-year-old woman experiencing knee pain. The assignment utilizes the PICO framework to formulate a research question and conducts database searches in MEDLINE and CINAHL to find relevant articles. The student analyzes two key articles that explore the efficacy and safety of fish oil, including different dosages, in treating knee osteoarthritis. The findings suggest that fish oil, in both low and high doses, can improve knee movement and reduce pain for osteoarthritis patients. The assignment concludes that while more research is needed, the available evidence supports the use of fish oil as a potential treatment option, offering relief from joint pain and swelling.

Running head: NURSING
Inquiry in health
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Introduction
This assignment is search strategy for the use of fish oil as a treatment for osteoarthritis.
Fish oil is a very good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which generally blocks inflammatory
cytokines and prostaglandins. It also helps to lowers the triglyceride levels of blood, protecting
against heart disease and reducing high blood pressure 3 (Felson & Bischoff-Ferrari, 2015). In
this assignment there has been described about Peggy who is 65 year old and she is suffering
from degenerative osteoarthritis in her knees. One of her friend suggested her to use fish oil. As
Peggy is too much eager to reduce the pain of arthritis she is ready to use anything but she want
evidence in the support of using fish oil (Chevalier, & Eymard, 2016).
Body
PICO Question: In older women with osteoarthritis is fish oil an effective treatment
option?
Keywords search: arthritis; osteoarthritis; joint pain; rheumatoid arthritis; marine oil; fish
oil; rheumatology; complementary medicine
The best two databases that used to search for evidence are MEDLINE and CINAHL.
According to CINAHL the databases shows the searches are:
 osteoarthritis (2,467)
 arthritis, rheumatoid (1,173)
 pain (350)
 fish oils (349)
 knee (186)

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 arthritis, infectious (184)
EBSCO CINAHL DATABASE SEARCH
ACTION/ TERMS SEARCH MODE RESULTS LIMITERS/EXPANDERS
(MH “Fish Oils”) Boolean/Phrase 271
Limiters - Abstract Available;
Published Date: 20100101-
20171231; English Language; Peer
Reviewed
(MH “Knee Pain”) OR (MH
"Osteoarthritis, Knee") OR
(MH "Knee Joint")
Boolean/Phrase 3029
Abstract Available; Published Date:
20120101-20171231; English
Language; Peer Reviewed
(MH "Fish Oils/DE/TU") Boolean/Phrase 75 Expanders - Apply related words
(MH "Osteoarthritis,
Knee/DI/ET/TH/RF")
Boolean/Phrase 453 Expanders - Apply related words
(MH "Osteoarthritis,
Knee/CO/TH")
Boolean/Phrase 360
Limiters - Abstract Available;
Published Date: 20130101-20171231;
English Language; Peer Reviewed
MEDLINE DATABASE SEARCH
Keywords/search terms Alternative words
P osteoarthritis Joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis
I Fish oil Marine oil, marine fish
C Effectiveness Patient satisfaction, drug effects,

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O medicine Rheumatology, treatment outcome
According to the database search results two articles was found which were relevant to PICO
question.
1. Efficacy and safety of fish oil in treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
In this article, 75 participants were divided into a group three consisting of 25
people studying the effects of results after using fish oil 1,000 mg and 2,000 mg once a
day for 8 weeks. The patient satisfaction rate was 9.06 of 10 and also by response through
verbally of 50 participants. It makes everyone felt good and happy by using fish oil
(Peanpadungrat, 2015).
2. Fish oil in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized clinical trial of low dose versus high
dose. Annals of the rheumatic diseases.
In this article, a random and controlled trial was done where 202 patients were
enrolled suffering from osteoarthritis of knee. They were given 1:1 to high-dose fish oil
and low-dose fish oil 15 mL/day. It was found that there were improvements in both the
groups. One that is using the low-dose fish oil had more improvement in pain and then
the group which is using high-dose fish oil (Hill et al., 2016).
Conclusion
From the first article it can be concluded that daily intake of 1,000-2,000 mg of fish oil
shows significant change in the improvement of knee movement and also proved to be safe for
the treatment of osteoarthritis patients (Davidson & Clark, 2015). From second article it can be

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concluded that, both the high dose and low dose fish oil are effective for the treatment of
osteoarthritis.
In this paper through the database search it has been proved that there are evidences of using of
fish oil for the treatment of osteoarthritis (Gao et al., 2016). Despite of the popularity that the
fish oil can be used for arthritis, there are not enough evidence to prove that it is the absolute way
of treatment. But from the whole assignment it can be said that Peggy who is suffering from
osteoarthritis at knee and is dealing with pain can use fish oil as a medicine for treatment. This
will help her to reduce the joint pain and also the swelling.

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