Reducing Knee Load And Slowing Disease Progression With Conservative Interventions In Knee Osteoarthritis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$271,503.00
Summary
Knee arthritis is a painful, disabling, costly condition particularly affecting the elderly. As there is presently no cure for arthritis, interventions that slow progression of the disease will reduce the personal and societal burden of arthritis. Recently it has been postulated that specific exercise that targets how the muscles are controlled by the nervous system may have greater disease-modifying effects than exercise aimed at strengthening the muscles. Data are beginning to highlight the co ....Knee arthritis is a painful, disabling, costly condition particularly affecting the elderly. As there is presently no cure for arthritis, interventions that slow progression of the disease will reduce the personal and societal burden of arthritis. Recently it has been postulated that specific exercise that targets how the muscles are controlled by the nervous system may have greater disease-modifying effects than exercise aimed at strengthening the muscles. Data are beginning to highlight the complexity of muscle strategies adopted by the nervous system to compensate for joint derangement in knee arthritis. It is our contention that there may be specific strategies that provide more optimal knee joint loading in relation to slowing disease progression. The first part of this project is to investigate knee control in people with knee arthritis and to evaluate whether this influences disease progression. This will provide the basis for refinement and optimisation of rehabilitation interventions for this patient group. The second part of this project will investigate whether strengthening the hip muscles in patients with knee arthritis influences knee load and hence disease progression. Hip muscle strengthening is currently not routinely included as part of the management of knee arthritis. If the results of this project find it to be effective, then hip muscle strengthening can be recommended for treating knee arthritis.Read moreRead less
Knee osteoarthritis: Getting moving with physiotherapy. Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent chronic musculoskeletal condition causing pain, disability and reduced quality-of-life. Further rises in the prevalence of knee OA and associated patient and economic costs are expected due to an ageing population and increasing risk factors for OA such as obesity. This research will provide important information about the role of modified footwear and gait retraining in management of knee OA which ca ....Knee osteoarthritis: Getting moving with physiotherapy. Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent chronic musculoskeletal condition causing pain, disability and reduced quality-of-life. Further rises in the prevalence of knee OA and associated patient and economic costs are expected due to an ageing population and increasing risk factors for OA such as obesity. This research will provide important information about the role of modified footwear and gait retraining in management of knee OA which can influence current clinical practice. This has the potential to reduce the burden of knee OA from both an individual and societal perspective. Furthermore, the research will result in a commercially available shoe suitable for people with knee OA. Read moreRead less