People with short symptom duration of knee osteoarthritis benefit more from exercise therapy than people with longer symptom duration: an individual participant data meta-analysis from the OA trial bank

Review written by Dr Anthony Teoli info

Key Points

  1. This study demonstrated an overall small but positive effect in favour of exercise therapy compared to non-exercise controls on both short- and long-term pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).
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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Therapeutic exercise is recommended for the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA) according to best practice guidelines (1). However, most randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of exercise for knee OA have been performed in mixed populations where symptoms are ongoing for many years (2). When chronic pain has already developed, and disability has become severe, initiating and maintaining exercise therapy and an active lifestyle can be difficult.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether duration of knee symptoms influenced the magnitude of the effect of exercise therapy compared to non-exercise control interventions on pain and physical function in people with knee OA.

Therapeutic exercise is recommended for the management of knee osteoarthritis according to best practice guidelines.
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Patients with knee OA with a shorter symptom duration benefit significantly more from exercise therapy than those with a longer symptom duration.

METHODS

  • The authors undertook an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis utilizing IPD stored within the OA Trial Bank from RCTs comparing exercise to non-exercise controls among people with knee and/or hip OA.
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