Jury out on exercise for arthritic hips: studies

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There is "insufficient evidence" to show that exercise decreases pain, improves function or enhances quality of life in people who suffer from arthritis of the hip joint, researchers from New Zealand report in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Recent guidelines on exercise for individuals with arthritis have been largely based on studies conducted in people with arthritis of the knee, not the hip, Dr. Peter J. McNair and colleagues at the Health and Rehabilitation Research Center, Auckland University of Technology, note in the report. "These guidelines seem rigorous even for those who are able bodied," they said.

Because exercise in patients with hip arthritis "has received much less attention in the literature," the researchers conducted a systematic literature review to identify intervention studies of exercise therapy in this population.

Using 14 electronic databases, they identified 4001 articles, of which 338 were deemed suitable for review. Of these, six exercise intervention studies, involving a total of 356 patients with hip arthritis, met inclusion criteria, but only one study was rated as "high quality."

The interventions included pool-based therapy, which was primarily of low intensity and involved walking, leg swinging and mobility exercises; land-based swinging, mobility and stretching; strengthening exercises using fitness equipment or isometric contractions; gait exercises; and balance exercises.

Among available studies, "Insufficient evidence was found to suggest that exercise therapy can be an effective short-term management approach for reducing pain levels, improving joint function and quality of life," the investigators report.

"Due to the limited number of studies that compared different types of exercise, no conclusions could be drawn as to whether one type was more beneficial than others," they conclude.

SOURCE: Arthritis Research & Therapy, 2009.