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Exercise is a common first-line intervention for knee osteoarthritis, but little guidance exists on which type of exercise is best. Now, researchers have compared the outcomes of various exercise programs (aerobic, flexibility, mind–body, neuromotor, strengthening, and mixed) in a network meta-analysis of 217 randomized trials involving more than 15,000 people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life were evaluated at 4, 12, and 24 weeks.
Only aerobic exercise demonstrated short- or medium-term benefit for all outcomes. Other types of exercise showed mixed results.
Aerobic exercise was the only intervention associated with improvement in pain at both short- and medium-term f…