Conference Coverage
OA patients benefit long term from exercise or manual therapy
Key clinical point: Prescribing exercise therapy or manual therapy to patients in various stages of OA can provide long-term benefit in addition...
BOSTON – Exercise therapy or manual therapy provide benefits for improving osteoarthritis symptoms and physical function that go over and above what is obtained with usual care alone, according to results from a randomized, controlled trial.
The trial is the first to show the additive effect of manual therapy or exercise therapy on top of usual care. The results of the trial, which had 2 years of follow-up, indicate that in the absence of predictive factors, clinicians should prescribe either one of the interventions based on patient preference in addition to the usual care of NSAIDs and other adjunctive treatments such as massage therapy or specialized footwear, lead investigator Dr. Haxby Abbott of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, said in an interview at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.