The following is a summary of the “Recommendations for the delivery of therapeutic exercise for people with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis. An international consensus study from the OARSI Rehabilitation Discussion Group,” published in the March 2023 issue of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage by Holden, et al.

This study aims to provide evidence-based guidelines for best practice therapeutic exercise for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and/or hip osteoarthritis (OA). A worldwide, multi-disciplinary multi-disciplinary, evidence-based, consensus-building procedure that included

first, a narrative literature review that synthesizes the current evidence; an international, multi-disciplinary multi-disciplinary panel of experts generates evidence-informed proposition statements on the delivery of exercise for people with knee and/or hip OA, and then refines and analyses these statements thematically; a Delphi online survey of the experts to determine which claims are universally agreed upon;

Do a final thematic analysis and statement refining to classify any remaining statements into applicable categories. There were 318 academics, health care practitioners, fitness specialists, and patient representatives from 43 different nations that made up the expert panel. The final set of proposals included 54 separate proposition statements organized into 11 categories: Consider exercise in the context of managing OA and pain; perform a thorough baseline evaluation with follow-up; establish goals; think carefully about the type of exercise you’ll be doing; determine how much exercise you’ll be doing.

Exercise progression and modification; exercise customization; exercise delivery optimization;  exercise adherence; and OA and exercise education. Delivering therapeutic exercise for OA is multi-dimensional and complex, as evidenced by the variety of problems identified as significant by the international multi-disciplinary expert panel.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1063458422008883