Stepped Exercise Program effective therapy for knee osteoarthritis, Finds Study

The authors carried out a randomized controlled trial including a total of 345 patients with a mean age of 60 years out of which 15% were female and 67% people of color, who all presented with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.

Participants were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to STEP-KOA or an arthritis education (AE) control group, respectively. The STEP-KOA intervention began with 3 months of an internet-based exercise program (step 1). Participants who did not meet response criteria for improvement in pain and function after step 1 progressed to step 2, which involved 3 months of biweekly physical activity coaching calls. Participants who did not meet response criteria after step 2 went on to in-person physical therapy visits (step 3). The AE group received educational materials via mail every 2 weeks.

Scores for the STEP-KOA and AE groups at 9 months were compared by using linear mixed models and the following findings were observed-

3. In the STEP-KOA group, 65% of participants (150 of 230) progressed to step 2 and 35% (81 of 230) to step 3.
4. The estimated baseline WOMAC score for the full sample was 47.5 (95% CI, 45.7 to 49.2).
5. At 9-month follow-up, the estimated mean WOMAC score was 6.8 points (CI, −10.5 to −3.2 points) lower in the STEP-KOA than the AE group, indicating greater improvement.

Hence, the authors concluded that "the STEP-KOA strategy may be efficient for delivering exercise therapies for knee osteoarthritis."