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Evidence summaries

Aquatic Exercise for the Treatment of Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis

Aquatic exercise appears to have some beneficial short-term effects for patients with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis while no long-term effects have been documented. Level of evidence: "B"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 13 studies with a total of 1190 subjects. The mean aquatic exercise duration was 12 weeks. Meta-analysis of 12 trials showed that aquatic exercise caused a small short term improvement compared to control in pain (SMD −0.31, 95% CI −0.47 to −0.15; 12 trials, 1076 participants) and disability (SMD −0.32, 95% CI −0.47 to −0.17; 12 trials, 1059 participants). Ten trials showed a small effect on quality of life (QoL) (SMD −0.25, 95% CI −0.49 to −0.01; 10 trials, 971 participants).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (blinding of personnel).

    References

    • Bartels EM, Juhl CB, Christensen R et al. Aquatic exercise for the treatment of knee and hip osteoarthritis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2016;3():CD005523. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords