Aerobic Exercise Likely Most Beneficial Modality in Knee Osteoarthritis

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Aerobic exercise is likely the most beneficial exercise modality for patients with knee osteoarthritis, according to a study published online Oct. 15 in The BMJ.Lei Yan, from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China, and colleagues conducted a systematic review with a network meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of various exercise modalities as therapeutic interventions for knee osteoarthritis. Data were included from 217 randomized controlled trials involving 15,684 participants.The researchers found moderate-certainty evidence for aerobic exercise probably resulting in large improvements in pain at short-term and midterm follow-up (standardized mean difference, –1.10 and –1.19), function and gait at midterm (1.78 and 0.85), and quality of life at the short term (1.53) compared with controls. A large increase in function at short-term follow-up probably resulted from mind-body exercise (0.88), while a large increase in gait performance at short-term follow-up probably resulted from neuromotor exercise (1.04). A large increase in function at midterm follow-up probably resulted from strengthening and mixed exercise (0.86 and 1.07). In terms of long-term follow-up, a large reduction in pain may result from flexibility exercise, while a large increase in function may result from aerobic exercise. The highest probability of being the best treatment was consistently seen for aerobic exercise, as indicated by the surface under the cumulative ranking curve values (mean, 0.72) across outcomes."With moderate-certainty quality evidence, aerobic exercise might be the best exercise modality for improvements in pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Aerobic Exercise Likely Most Beneficial Modality in Knee Osteoarthritis

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