Does adding hip exercises to quadriceps exercises result in superior outcomes in pain, function and quality of life for people with knee osteoarthritis? A systematic review and meta-analysis FREE
Andrew Craig Hislop British Journal of Sports Medicine 2020 54(5)
Objectives To determine, in people with knee osteoarthritis (KOA): i) the effectiveness of adding hip strengthening exercises to quadriceps exercises and ii) the type of hip strengthening exercise with the greatest evidence for improving pain, function and quality of life.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Randomised controlled trials investigating the effect of adding hip exercises to quadriceps exercises in people with KOA on pain, function and/or quality of life were included. Three subgroups of hip exercises were included: resistance, functional neuromuscular or multimodal exercise.
Results Eight studies were included. Pooled data provide evidence that combined hip and quadriceps exercise is significantly more effective than quadriceps exercise alone for improving walking function (standardised mean difference −1.06, 95% CI −2.01 to −0.12), but not for outcomes of pain (−0.09, 95% CI –0.96 to 0.79), patient-reported function (−0.74, 95% CI –1.56 to 0.08) or stair function (−0.7, 95% CI –1.67 to 0.26). Subgroup analyses reveal that hip resistance exercises are more effective than functional neuromuscular exercises for improving pain (p<0.0001) and patient-reported function (p<0.0001). Multimodal exercise is no more effective than quadriceps strengthening alone for pain (0.13, 95% CI –0.31 to 0.56), patient-reported function (−0.15, 95% CI –0.58 to 0.29) or stair function (0.13, 95% CI –0.3 to 0.57).
Conclusion Walking improved after the addition of hip strengthening to quadriceps strengthening in people with KOA. The addition of resistance hip exercises to quadriceps resulted in greater improvements in patient-reported pain and function.
