Font Size: 

AIM-Knee osteoarthritis (OA) results in persistent pain and limited physicalfunctioning. Tele-physiotherapy, which involves the use of telecommunicationstechnology as a medium for therapeutic care appears not to have been exploredamong patients with knee OA. This study was carried out to investigate theeffect of a 6-week tele-physiotherapy programme on pain intensity and physicalfunction of patients with knee OA.METHODOLOGY- Fifty patients with knee OA were randomly assigned using a computer generated table of randomnumbersequally into two treatment groups; Clinic Group (CG) and Tele-physiotherapyGroup (TG). The CG received thrice-weekly physiotherapist administeredosteoarthritis-specific exercises in the clinic for six weeks while the TGreceived structured telephone monitoring with self-administeredosteoarthritis-specific exercises thrice-weekly for six weeks at home.Participants’ pain intensity and physical function were assessed using VisualAnalogue Scale and Ibadan Knee Hip Osteoarthritis Outcome Measure respectively.Assessments were done at baseline, second, fourth and sixth week ofintervention by blinded-physiotherapist assessors. Data were analyzed usingIndependent t-test and ANOVA.RESULTS -The mean ages of CG (54.96±7.81years) and TG (56.04±7.40years) were notsignificantly different. Within group comparison showed significantimprovements (p < 0.05) across baseline, 2nd, 4th and6th week of intervention in TG and CG’s pain intensity and physicalfunction. Between-groups comparison of CG and TG’s pain intensity and physicalfunction at baseline, 2nd, 4th and 6th weeksshowed no significant differences (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION- Six-week tele-physiotherapy reduced pain and improved physical function inpatients with knee OA, comparable to clinic based treatment. Thus,tele-physiotherapy should be incorporated into the rehabilitation programme ofpatients with knee OA. Keywords: Tele-physiotherapy, Osteoarthritis, Pain, Physical function.