We have seen from previous blogs that many people suffer with osteoarthritis of the knee and that this can be a painful condition. So what exercise programmes are most beneficial for reducting pain and reducing patient reported disability?
Fortunately a team based in Denmark undertook a systematic review to identify the optimal exercise programme, characterized by type and intensity of exercise, length of program, duration of individual supervised sessions, and number of sessions per week, for reducing pain and patient-reported disability in knee osteoarthritis (OA).
Here’s what they did
They searched the literature for studies published up to May 2012 in the following bibliographic databases with no restriction on publication year or language: Medline via PubMed, EMBase via OVID, CINAHL (including preCINAHL) via EBSCO, PEDro, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.
To be included studies must have involved participants with (explicitly stated) OA in either one or both knees, as defined by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. Trials that included patients with knee and/or hip OA were included if separate data on the knee were available. The outcomes for evaluation of clinical efficacy were pain and disability, as recommended by Outcome Measures in Rheumatology III.
A meta-analysis of included randomized controlled trials was performed. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) were combined using a random-effects model. Study-level covariates were applied in meta-regression analyses in order to reduce between-study heterogeneity.
Here’s what they found
- Forty-eight trials were included.
- Pain reduction:
- Similar effects were found for aerobic, resistance, and performance exercise (SMD 0.67, 0.62, and 0.48, respectively; P 0.733).
- These single-type exercise programmes were more efficacious than programmes that included different exercise types (SMD 0.61 versus 0.16; P < 0.001).
- Aerobic exercise: pain relief increased with an increased number of supervised sessions (slope 0.022 [95% confidence interval 0.002, 0.043]).
- Quadriceps-specific exercise was more effective than lower limb exercise (SMD 0.85 versus 0.39; P 0.005).
- Supervised exercise performed at least 3 times a week (SMD 0.68 versus 0.41; P 0.017) gave best improvements.
- No impact of intensity, duration of individual sessions, or patient characteristics was found.
- Patient-reported disability: Similar results were found for the effect on patient-reported disability.
The authors concluded
Optimal exercise programmes should have one aim and focus on improving aerobic capacity, quadriceps muscle strength, or lower extremity performance. Such programs have a similar effect regardless of patient characteristics, including radiographic severity and baseline pain.
The Musculoskeletal Elf’s view
This well conducted systematic review and meta-analysis has interesting findings, for best results the exercise programme should be supervised, carried out 3 times weekly, and comprise at least 12 sessions and should focus on single exercise types. Interestingly these results found no support for individualization of exercise programs based on patient characteristics. For example, the effect of exercise therapy in reducing pain was not associated with the severity of knee OA.
Although the methods indicate that no language restrictions were applied it appears that 10 trials were excluded due to language. However, the 8 available abstracts of the excluded trials indicated that those trials showed similar effects of exercise therapy in reducing pain and disability compared to the included trials.
What do you think?
- Do you precribe single type exercise programmes such as muscle strength, aerobic exercise and strength training or do you combine them?
- Do you prescribe programmes that are supervised 3 times per week for 12 weeks?
- Do you prescribe individualised exercise programmes?
- Will the results of this review alter your practice?
- So what if patients have poor aerobic capacity? Is it possible to undertake muscle strength, aerobic exercise and strength training on different days in order to achieve the best effect?
Send us your views on this blog and become part of the ever expanding Musculoskeletal Elf community. Post your comment below, or get in touch via social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+).
Links
- Juhl C, Christensen R, Roos EM, Zhang W, Lund H Impact of exercise type and dose on pain and disability in knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014 Mar;66(3):622-36. doi: 10.1002/art.38290. [abstract]
- PRISMA statement
- EQUATOR Network
Susan Westlake
8 years agoMathewHawkes
10 years agozether
10 years agoTamara28Brown
10 years agoNLO_OA
10 years agoCristina d'Agostino
10 years agoStefano Respizzi
10 years agoKarenT_physio
10 years agoPhysioUniverse
10 years agoCritical_Chiro
10 years agoRamblingAMT
10 years agoMSK_Elf
10 years agoLaura Holguin
10 years ago