Tolerability of High Intensity Exercise for Knee Osteoarthritis

Plain-language summary

Background: Current knee osteoarthritis (OA) guidelines recommend knee specific exercise as treatment for knee OA pain. However, up to 87 % of patients with knee OA have at least one other chronic condition, typically cardiovascular in nature. The elevated risk of cardiovascular health problems can be mitigated by performing aerobic exercise. By consequence, it seems logical to apply aerobic exercise for this patient group as the symptomatic benefit is equal to other types of exercise. Aim: This study aims to assess the tolerability of cardiovascular exercise using High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on different self-selected exercise equipment in patients with knee OA and at least one CVD risk factor. Hypothesis: The hypothesis is that performing HIIT exercise is tolerable when having knee OA and at least one CVD risk factor. Method: The study is a prospective cohort study designed to assess if HIIT performed by patients with knee OA and at least one modifiable CVD risk factor influence knee pain. The investigators plan to include 40 participants. The participants will be recruited from the osteoarthritis outpatient clinic at Bispebjerg-Frederiksberg hospital. This study will include participants with a clinical diagnosis of knee OA (either one or both knees) and at least one CVD risk factor (obesity, hypertension, elevated HbA1c (long-term blood glycose), elevated triglycerides, elevated cholesterol (LDL)). All participants will attend the HIIT intervention 3 times per week, for 12 weeks. Before a participant attend their first exercise session, he/she will be asked to complete an educational session about knee OA and aerobic exercise. Participants will have a pre-screening visit (phone call), a screening visit, and a baseline visit, before the 12-week exercise period (3 sessions weekly), and after completion of the exercise period a follow-up visit. Finance: This study is fully funded by Sygesikring "Denmark". Publication: All results, both negative, positive, and inconclusive will be published. Should publication fail, the results will be made publicly available.

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