High intensity exercise in OA not backed up by evidence

Osteoarthritis

3 Nov 2015

The belief that high intensity exercise is better than low intensity for improving pain and physical function in people with knee OA is not backed up by evidence, a Cochrane review shows.

 The Cochrane musculoskeletal group based in Paris found little evidence to suggest that high intensity exercise programs led to greater improvements in pain and physical function in the short term compared to low-intensity programs.

They also found no important clinical difference in the type of intensity of exercise programs in terms of time or level of resistance.

They were also unable to make a conclusion about the effects for quality of life between high- and low-intensity exercise programs, they said.

 According to the authors the review highlighted the need for better reporting of exercise programs in clinical trials with explicit descriptions that enable easy replication.

Clinical studies on rehabilitation should be carefully designed and follow the most recent Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines to report their data, they advised.

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