Research
Mixed
For osteoarthritis of the knee, structured land-based exercise reduces pain and improves physical function with moderate effect sizes, comparable to or better than no-exercise controls.
Land-based exercise reduces knee OA pain and improves function. Supervised exercise is preferable.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
Evidence for the immediate benefits on mean pain scores was high quality... and the effect size was considered moderate... Evidence for the effect on physical function was of moderate quality... and likely of clinical significance.
Why this rating
Cochrane review of 54 RCTs.
Source
Prescribing exercise interventions for patients with chronic conditions
Tammy Hoffmann et al. · Canadian Medical Association Journal · 2016
DOI 10.1503/cmaj.150684
narrative_reviewCited 160×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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