Aquatic physical therapy reduces pain, improves functional fitness and quality of life of older people with knee osteoarthritis: Randomized controlled trial

Introduction: Aquatic therapy promotes short-term benefits for patients with knee osteoarthritis, the first therapeutic option for the elderly with this pathological condition. Objective: Investigate the effects of an aquatic physical therapy program on pain intensity, functional fitness and quality of life in older people with knee osteoarthritis. Methods: This was a two-arm parallel randomized controlled clinical trial with older people with knee osteoarthritis. The volunteers were divided into: water group (WG; n = 18), who were subjected to the intervention, and control group (CG; n = 15), who were not subjected to any kind of intervention. Data collection consisted of the evaluation of the perception of pain by visual analog scale with application of nociceptive stimuli at four anatomical points of the knee, functional fitness tests, and application of the WHOQOL-bref and WOMAC questionnaires, pre- and post-intervention. The program lasted 12 weeks, periodicity of three times a week, 40 minutes per session, water temperature maintained at 33o C and consisted of aerobic and functional exercises in the form of circuit training. Results: There was a reduction in pain intensity in the articular interline and medial femoral condoyle of the left knee, increased flexibility, improvement in the dynamic balance, pain and physical function domains of WOMAC and environmental domain of WHOQOL-bref. Conclusion: We conclude that the aquatic physical therapy promoted reduction of pain intensity, improved functional fitness and quality of life in older people with knee osteoarthritis.