Back to Articles Page
Back to main Kaipara Medical Centre page

Exercise Helps Osteoarthritis Patients Stay Active

People with osteoarthritis of the knee may delay disability with a light routine of aerobic or resistance exercise, according to the results of a new study.

"The main finding of the study is that aerobid or resistance exercise appears to reduce the incidence of disability by about 50% in activities of daily living'" says Dr Brenda Penninx of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston Salem, North Carolina, the study's lead author.

Penninx and her colleagues followed 250 men and women aged 60 and older who were diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee but were free of disability. The patients were separated into three groups. One group walked for one hour three times a week, another group did light weight training, and the third group attended educational meetings about their disorder but did not participate in a formal exercise programme. After an initial supervised period, the intervention in the study was mainly done at home.

Researchers worked with the people to implement more exercise in their daily life. For instance, people who participated in the 'mall walkers programme' walked several blocks in their own neighbourhood or did strength exercises in their own living room.

In their report, Penninx and her team note that both exercise programmes prevented disability. 37% of those in an exercise group reported disability after 18 months compared with nearly 53% of those who did not exercise.

People with the lowest levels of disability at the end of the study period were those who had adhered most stringently to their exercise regimen, the report indicates.

Source: Archives of Internal Medicine 2001;161:2309-2316

Back to Articles Page
Back to main Kaipara Medical Centre page