Dennis Dolny, Ph.D. - Utah State University
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that affects articular cartilage and underlying subchondral bone. Cartilage surfaces are roughened, causing hypertrophic changes leading to joint space narrowing. Since there is no cure, normal treatment is to manage pain and to incorporate exercise to maintain or enhance functional status.
While land-based exercise has demonstrated efficacy for pain management and functional status in OA patients less is known relative to aquatic exercise therapy. Examples of aquatic exercise include deep water and shallow water walking, aquatic therapy exercises and water treadmill exercise.
A review examining aquatic therapy studies identified many studies lacking randomized or quasi-randomized clinical trials. Aquatic exercise appears to have some beneficial short-term effects for patients with hip and/or knee OA while no long-term effects have been documented. Based on this, one may consider using aquatic exercise as the first part of a longer exercise program for osteoarthritis patients. The controlled and randomized studies in this area are still too few to give further recommendations on how to apply the therapy, and studies of clearly defined patient groups with long-term outcomes are needed to decide on the further use of this therapy in the treatment of osteoarthritis.
