The Role of Digital Technologies as an Alternative for Face-to-Face Knee Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review

Digital technologies, including mobile applications, websites, and wearable devices, like smartwatches are among the newest approaches in prevention, care, and treatment studies; they could provide public access to high-quality rehabilitation services. The current review study aimed to evaluate the effects of digital technologies for enhancing physical activity, as well as improving and managing pain in individuals with knee injuries and pain.

The keywords “digital care program”, “e-health”, “physical activity”, and “knee pain” were used to search the studies in the PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. In total, 734 articles were found. Then, studies published in languages other than English; the articles with completely similar results; the studies on diseases other than knee problems, and those investigating children or adolescents were excluded. Thus, valid articles indexed in these databases that digital technologies were an except original in the intervention; databases that investigated the impact of digital technologies on osteoarthritis and total knee arthroplasty knee improvement, and the randomized controlled trials were included in this research. Eventually, 8 articles were evaluated in this study. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the PEDro score.

The overall outcome of the explored studies indicated that digital technologies significantly impact pain relief, and improve mobility, quality of life, and self-care in patients with osteoarthritis and total knee arthroplasty. 

Digital technologies increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs and play an essential role in creating a self-care culture. These technologies have resulted in savings in medical, commuting, pharmacotherapy, and surgery costs by communicating between patient and therapist at any time in any place.