Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of hip abductor & adductor muscle strengthening in reducing the pain of knee osteoarthritis.
Method:
A Quasi-experimental design of quantitative research is carried out in this study. Purposively 8 patients with knee osteoarthritis were collected from outdoor physiotherapy department of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyses (CRP). Patients were allocated for Physiotherapy Treatment and the participants received 6 sessions of treatment in this quantitative different subject design study. The experimental group receives a protocol of hip abductor and adductor strengthening. Outcome was measured by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), to measure the pain intensity. The participants were received physiotherapy treatments which are used in outdoor physiotherapy department of the CRP.
Results:
Following the treatment hip abductor & adductor muscle group strengthening the improvements in pain scores were found in the positions e.g. sit to stand from high chair (p<0.05), stand to sit to low chair(p<0.05), walking after 7 min(p<0.01), walking after 15min(p<0.01), in cross sitting(p<0.025), in staring (p<0.01) .There were not significant improvement of pain scores in lying (p<0.10), sit to stand from high chair (p<0.10), stand to sit to low chair (p<0.10) and squatting (p<0.10) positions. But the mean improvement of pain scores was greater in hip abductor & adductor group e.g. in lying (2.75 as opposed to1.75), sit to stand from high chair (3.675 as opposed to 2.25), stand to sit to low chair (3.55 as opposed to 2.375) and squatting(4.625 as opposed to 3.775). So null hypothesis was rejected.
Conclusion:
Hip abductor and adductor muscle strengthening can reduce the pain of knee osteoarthritis.
Key words: Osteoarthritis, Knee osteoarthritis, pain, hip abductor & adductor muscle strengthening can reduce the pain of knee osteoarthritis.