Efficacy of patient education and supervised exercise vs patient education alone in patients with hip osteoarthritis: a single blind randomized clinical trial

SummaryObjectiveTo compare the efficacy of patient education and supervised exercise with that of patient education alone for the management of pain in patients with hip osteoarthritis (OA).DesignSingle blind randomized clinical trial.SettingRecruitment of patients from hospitals, primary health care and advertisement, Oslo, Norway.Participants109 patients with radiographic and symptomatic hip OA with mild to moderate symptoms.InterventionsPatient education (PE). Patient education and supervised exercise (PE + SE).Primary outcome measureThe pain subscale of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC pain).ResultsNo significant between group differences were found for WOMAC pain over the 16-month follow-up. Significant improvements were found for the secondary outcome WOMAC physical function (P = 0.011) in the group receiving PE + SE compared to the group receiving PE only. No significant differences were found for WOMAC stiffness, the SF-36 subscales or the activity scale. The effect sizes (95% confidence interval) for WOMAC pain were −0.26 (0.11, −0.64), −0.35 (0.07, −0.77), and −0.30 (0.15, −0.75), and for WOMAC physical function −0.29 (0.09, −0.67), −0.48 (−0.06, −0.91), and −0.47 (−0.02, −0.93) at 4, 10 and 16 months, respectively, in favor of the group receiving both PE and SE. All patients attended the three-session PE program, and 75% performed ≥16 sessions of the 12-week SE program.ConclusionThe study could not demonstrate a significant difference in pain reduction over time between PE + SE vs PE alone. Adding SE to PE may improve physical function, but the magnitude of possible benefit is unknown as the 95% confidence intervals around the mean difference were wide.Trial registrationClinical Trials NCT00319423.