Logo Living Systematic Review Osteoarthritis Financially supported by: Logo IGPTR Logo Physiotherapie Tschopp und Hilfiker Brig Glis Work in Progress Version No. 0.1.80.62. Updated: 2025 November 19 10:16
Science Slam Physiotherapy-Congress Basel 2025 (click here for video on youtube). PLOS ONE (13 Nov 2025): A mixed-methods study from Saudi Arabia finds that 90% of adults with knee osteoarthritis have very low physical activity levels, largely due to cultural, psychological, and logistical barriers, highlighting the need for patient-centred education and improved access to physiotherapy. (click here for free article). Frontiers in Public Health (28 Oct 2025): A meta-analysis of 13 RCTs (n=701) shows Tai Chi significantly improves pain, stiffness, function and physical health in knee osteoarthritis, with long-term (>16 weeks), three-times-weekly practice most effective for pain and function. (click here for free article). BMJ (2025): In a network meta-analysis of 217 RCTs (n=15 684), aerobic exercise emerged as the most effective and safe modality for improving pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life in knee osteoarthritis. (click here for free article). BMJ (2025): Editorial argues that although aerobic exercise may be particularly effective for knee osteoarthritis, priority should be on personalised, community-supported plans that help people sustain any suitable exercise over the long term. In a randomized trial of 84 patients with mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis, supervised exercise alone was as good as or better than platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections (with or without exercise) for pain, function, and quality of life over 24 weeks, leading the authors to **recommend exercise and advise against PRP**.
|de | fr| en|

Living systematic review and interactive data analysis / visualisation on exercise for people with osteoarthritis

Methodology

The initial plan was to do an umbrella review, i.e. summarising results from published systematic reviews. However, because of low granularity of the reportings of these systematic reviews, we had to abandon this plan.

We perform now a systematic review for exercise in people with osteoarthritis.

Because the project is a living systematic review, we need to make the screening and data extraction process as easy as possible - to facilitate the invovlment of decentralised reviewers.

We are currently implementing a screening tool and a data extraction on this webpage, so that reviewers can screen, extract data, and control data directly on this webpage. We hope that this will increase data quality and coordinated data quality controls.

Have a look at the Meta-Analysis on resistance training for people with osteoarthritis.

This project is financed by physioswiss.