JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The feasibility of the Internet-based rehabilitation programs for patients with knee OA had been investigated by previous studies, but the evidence of their effectiveness in improving pain and physical function in the rehabilitation of knee osteoarthritis (OA) remains insufficient.

Objective:

To assess the effect of Internet-based rehabilitation programs on improvement of pain and physical function for patients with knee OA.

Methods:

Keywords related to knee OA and Internet-based rehabilitation were systematically searched (9 electronic databases: Web of Science, MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Scopus, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), CNKI, SinoMed and WANFANG). Randomized controlled trials were included. Researchers independently conduct the screen of literature as per the Cochrane methodology for a systematic literature review. The main outcome measures were focused on pain and physical function.

Results:

A total of 6 randomized controlled studies were included, involving 791 patients with knee OA. The results showed that the Internet-based rehabilitation programs could significantly reduce the pain for patients with knee OA compared with conventional therapy (SMD = -0.21; 95% CI = −0.4 to -0.01，p =0.04). However, the Internet-based rehabilitation programs appeared no significant difference on improve physical function for patients compared with conventional therapy in 2 to 12 months (SMD = -0.08; 95% CI= −0.27 to 0.12，p =0.43).

Conclusions:

The Internet-based rehabilitation programs can improve the pain and physical function for patients with knee OA，and the improvement of pain is better than conventional therapy. More researches should focus on the improvement of the physical function for patients with knee OA based on the Internet in the future.