OBJECTIVE: Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) and pain are assumed to be barriers for meeting physical activity guidelines, but this has not been formally evaluated. The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of people with and without knee OA and knee pain who met recommended physical activity levels through walking. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of community dwelling adults who have or who are at high risk of knee OA from The Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. Participants wore a StepWatch activity monitor to record steps/day over 7 days. The proportion that met the recommended physical activity levels was determined as those accumulating ≥150 minutes/week at ≥100 steps/minute in bouts lasting ≥10 minutes. These proportions were also determined for those with and without knee OA, as classified by radiograph, and by severity of knee pain. RESULTS: Of the 1788 study participants (age 67 sd 8 yrs, BMI 31 sd 6 kg/m(2) , 60% female), lower overall percentages of participants with radiographic knee OA and knee pain met recommended physical activity levels. However, these differences were not statistically significant between those with and without knee OA; 7.3% and 10.1% of men (p=0.34), and 6.3% and 7.8% of women (p=0.51), respectively, met recommended physical activity levels. Similarly, for those with moderate/severe pain versus no pain, 12.9% and 10.9% of men (p=0.74) and 6.7% and 11.0% (p=0.40) of women met recommended physical activity levels. CONCLUSIONS: Disease and pain have little impact on achieving recommended physical activity levels among people with or at high risk of knee OA. © 2012 American College of Rheumatology.