Joint exercises in elderly persons with symptomatic osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. Performance patterns, medical support patterns, and the relationship between exercising and medical care.
A total of 110 community-living elderly persons with chronic hip and/or knee pain, all of whom met American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for osteoarthritis (OA), were interviewed to obtain information about their performance of therapeutic joint exercises and exercise-related medical care. Although exercises are considered standard treatment for OA and 96% of subjects had seen a physician for the problem, fewer than half had received medical advice to exercise and very few had received thorough exercise-related teaching and monitoring. Arthritis specialists provided significantly more support for exercising than primary care physicians. Forty percent of the total sample and 63% of those advised by a physician to exercise were making some attempt to do so; however, only 10% were exercising in a manner that might be expected to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit. Supportive medical care was highly related to frequency of exercising.
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D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint; D008511:Medicine / Q000592:standards; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D013038:Specialization