The Effectiveness of Electrotherapy and Exercise Therapy on Pain and Balance in Elderly Women with Knee Osteoarthritis

One of the most prevalent knee-related complications is osteoarthritis, which primarily affects middle-aged females, and the severity of this disease worsens as people age. The purpose of this study was to determine how electrotherapy treatment modalities and therapeutic exercise affect the pain and balance of middle-aged women with knee osteoarthritis.

The pre-test-post-test research design was used in the current semi-experimental applied research. In the physiotherapy clinic of the city of Ardabil, the statistical population were selected from among middle-aged women who had osteoarthritis in their knees. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 middle-aged individuals, ranging in age from 45 to 65, from the statistical population, and they were then randomly divided into three groups. Additionally, for eight weeks, Romberg exercises were done three times per week. Experiment and statistical analysis of variance of repeated measurements were used to compare pre-test and post-test pain.

The analyses indicated that the effect of time factor in the pain test was statistically significant (P=0.048; d= 0.278). A pairwise comparison revealed that the electrotherapy group's post-test result was 37.99% lower than its pre-test result. The results showed that the group factor had an impact on the COPx values (P=0.019; d=0.180). The effect of the group factor on COPy values was statistically significant (P=0.034; d=0.151).

Based on the research findings, osteoarthritis can be prevented or treated to lessen its severity by making changes to one's lifestyle, engaging in disease-related exercise, and losing excess body weight before middle age.