Effects of medical exercise therapy in patients with hip osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial with six months follow-up. A pilot study

Abstract

There is no consensus regarding what type of exercises, combination of exercises or exercise dosage is most effective in patients with long-term hip arthrosis. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of two different exercise programs related to dose-response relationships. Prospective randomized controlled clinical trial with 6 months follow where 33 participants were randomly assigned to either high repetitive, high dosage medical exercise therapy (MET) (n=16) or low dosage exercise therapy (ET) (n=17). Primary outcomes are pain using a visual analog scale (VAS) and function using a functional assessment questionnaire (WOMAC). Patients were equal at baseline. Two patients (6%) dropped out during the treatment period. There were no difference between groups after end of treatment nor at 6 months follow up. However, there were significant differences within each exercise group at end of treatment. In this pilot study, we were not able to show any difference between MET and ET. More research is needed with a larger patient population and a more extensive exercise period similar to other studies that are published regarding dose-response effects. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01700933.