소형견 골관절염에서 처방 관절식이의 임상 효과 — 교차 RCT

The objective of this preliminary study was to evaluate the clinical Revised March 16, 2026 Accepted March 25, 2026 efficacy of a prescription joint diet in small breed dogs weighing less than 10 kg with naturally occurring osteoarthritis. A multicenter, prospective, owner-blind- *Correspondence: Byung-Jae Kang ed, two-period crossover trial involving ten client-owned dogs with clinical and bjkang81@snu.ac.kr radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis was conducted. The dogs were fed a Funding This study was supported by research control or prescription joint diet for each study phase, and clinical outcomes funding from Wooriwa Co., Ltd. were assessed using validated owner-reported questionnaires (Canine Orthopedic Index [COI] and Canine Brief Pain Inventory), veterinarian-assessed orthopedic assessment score, body weight, body condition score, and muscle condition score. Linear mixed-effects models were applied to account for the crossover design and intra-dog correlations. Compared with the control diet, the prescription diet resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of life domain of the COI (p = 0.004) and total COI score (p = 0.021). Other COI domains, canine brief pain inventory outcomes, and orthopedic assessment score showed trends toward improvement but without significant differences between the diets. Body weight and the body condition score were significantly reduced after the prescription diet relative to the control diet, with a mean body weight reduction of 7.6% from baseline following the prescription phase. Adjusting for body weight as a covariate did not alter the results. These findings suggest that a prescription joint diet may provide clinical benefits and promote weight reduction in smallbreed dogs with osteoarthritis; however, larger studies with longer follow-ups are warranted to confirm these preliminary results.