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A growing body of evidence suggests that exercise reduces pain and improves physical function in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA). In this meta-analysis of 60 randomized trials (>8200 participants; median follow-up, 15 weeks), investigators determined whether exercise interventions were more effective than no exercise; they also compared different exercise interventions.
Forty-four trials involved patients with knee OA, 2 involved patients with hip OA, and 12 involved patients with knee, hip, and other joint OA. The following types of exercise were evaluated: strengthening, flexibility, aerobic, and aquatic versions of these. For pain relief (measured with visual pain scales), strengthening, strengthening-plus-flexibility, nonaq…