Effects of Multicomponent Exercise on Subchondral Bone and Cartilage in Postmenopausal Women With Knee Osteoarthritis

Summary

Today, osteoarthritis (OA) is considered a whole-organ disease that is amenable to prevention and treatment in the early stages. Information on the articular cartilage and subchondral bone responses to exercise may help to develop safe and feasible exercise programs which can potentially improve cartilage and bone properties. Therefore, the goal of this study is to produce the knowledge needed to understand what effects multicomponent exercise regimen have on subchondral bone and articular cartilage of the knee joint in postmenopausal women with knee OA.

Participants will be randomized into either:

1. Intervention group, which conducts multicomponent exercise regimen including alternating step-aerobic and resistance training.
2. Reference group, which represents the standard rehabilitative management for knee OA patients with home exercises.

Researchers will compare intervention and reference groups to see if subchondral bone morphology and properties and cartilage biochemical alterations differ between the groups at the end of the 8-month intervention and 12-month follow-up period.

Conditions

• Osteoarthritis, Knee

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Multicomponent exercise regimen

A multicomponent exercise regimen applied is comprised of the step-aerobic and resistance training programs alternating every two weeks. The trainees participate in supervised training sessions 3 times a week for 8 months. Each session will include a 10-minutes warm-up, 30-minutes of effective training part and a 10-minutes period for cooling down. Step-aerobic: The program includes accelerating and decelerating through forwards and sideways movements with stops and turns to music. The degree of difficulty of movements and steps as well as training intensity will be gradually increased by increasing the height of the step benches. Resistance training: The participants will undergo a progressive resistance training program. Resistance training will emphasize training of following muscle groups: Quadriceps and hamstrings, hip abductors, adductors and extensors, and calf muscles. In addition to lower limb exercises, trunk and upper body exercises will be applied at intervals.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard rehabilitative management

The treatments that will be provided to the members of a reference group represent the standard rehabilitative management for knee OA patients. The home exercises focus on functional exercises maintaining lower extremity flexibility and muscle function. The home exercises are instructed to be carried out three times a week, each work-out lasting 30 minutes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oulu

  collaborator OTHER

• Wellbeing Services County of Central Finland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• UKK Institute

  collaborator OTHER

• Research Council of Finland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Jyvaskyla

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ari Heinonen, Prof., emeritus · University of Jyvaskyla

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

55 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-01

Primary Completion

2025-12-10

Completion

2025-12-11

Countries

• Finland

Study Locations