Investigating the Effect of Interval Walking and Qigong on People With Knee Osteoarthritis: Pilot Study

Investigating the Effect of Interval Walking and Qigong on Some Clinical and Biological Outcomes of People With Knee Osteoarthritis.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) causes pain and limited function that leads to a sedentary lifestyle. The sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, many subjects with KOA have knee pain and sleep disturbance that limit their function, quality of life and cause body fatigue. Walking exercise can benefit people with KOA. However, continues walking for more than 30 minutes can increase pain that may stop people from participation in walking exercise.

Interval walking may complete the same amount of walking exercise in several separate time periods, without causing extra pain in people with KOA. Mind-body exercise may improve sleep and pain in people with KOA.

This study will help researchers to find out whether the interval walking, or mind-body exercise may help people with KOA to improve their pain, fitness level, sleep quality, exercise participation, fatigue, and quality of life.

By doing this study, researchers hope to learn more about the interval walking or mind-body exercise in people with KOA.

Inclusion criteria are the following:

1. 60-79 years of age and diagnosed with KOA by a physician or meet the ACR criteria (95% sensitivity, and 69% specificity) for KOA. The ACR criteria include experiencing almost daily knee pain and having at least 3 of these 6 criteria: (1) Age more than 50 years old, (2) less than 30 minutes of morning stiffness, (3) increased warmth of the knee, (4) crepitus with flexion or extension, (5) joints' bony enlargement , and (6) tenderness of joint line with palpation, or subject must be diagnosed radiologically, with grade II or more according to the Kellgren and Lawrence rating scale.
2. Frequent knee pain or aching on most of the preceding 30 days.
3. An average of mild to moderate pain intensity level (5 to 75 mm on the 100 mm VAS) in the last 7 days
4. Sedentary lifestyle assessed using 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities questionnaire. The subject is considered sedentary if engaging in exercise or physical activity with metabolic equivalents of task (MET) less than 4, not more than two times/week.

Exclusion criteria:

1. Unwilling to attend 3 sessions/week at Kirmayer Fitness Center
2. Having other types of arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis or gout
3. Neurological disorders
4. CVD including hypertension that prevent them from engaging in walking exercise
5. Currently using beta blocker medication
6. Underwent any lower limb surgery during the past 6 months
7. A history of two or more incidents of fall during the last 6 months
8. Current hip or spine pain that prevents them from engaging in walking exercise.