Doi, Tokuhide MD; Akai, Masami MD, PhD; Fujino, Keiji MD, PhD; Iwaya, Tsutomu MD, PhD; Kurosawa, Hisashi MD, PhD; Hayashi, Kunihiko PhD; Marui, Eiji PhD
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of home-based exercise on knee osteoarthritis among Japanese in comparison with that of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In 142 patients home-based quadriceps exercise was compared with NSAIDs. Treatments were basically evaluated after 8 wks and compared with the baseline scores. Outcomes were evaluated with a set of psychometric measurements including the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC), 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM), and pain with the visual analog scale. Between these two groups, there was no significant difference in gender, age, body height and weight, body mass index, or each score at baseline. The subjects in both groups showed improvements in all scores at the end of intervention. The difference in improvement rate of each score between the two groups was not statistically significant, though the mean rank score measured with JKOM in the exercise was slightly better than that of the NSAIDs.
American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 2008, 87(4), 258-269