A new research has reveled that glucosamine sulfate, a dietary supplement used as a treatment for osteoarthritis, had absolutely no impact on reducing pain and inflammation of hip arthritis.

The study, conducted by Dr. Rianne M. Rozendaal at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, followed 222 patients with hip osteoarthritis for two years. Half of the participants were administered 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine sulfate, two capsules, once a day, while the others got dummy pills.

Pain and function levels were measured before the study, during the study, every three months and at the end of the study. The researchers performed X-rays of the ailing joint at the beginning and at the end of the trial.

The results revealed that glucosamine sulfate does not appear to treat hip arthritis and that the difference between glucosamine and placebo group in treating mild to moderate hip arthritis were very small. Moreover, 15 of the 222 patients underwent hip replacement surgeries, which might have made the analysis procedure more difficult.

“The differences between the glucosamine and placebo group were all very small. For these patients with hip osteoarthritis, glucosaminei sulfate does not seem to be an effective treatment on the basis of our results,” Dr. Rozendaal wrote in her study.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 20 percent of all Americans have been diagnosed with arthritis.

The results of the study were published in the Feb. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.