Physiotherapy Intervention Improves Clinical Outcomes and Quality of Life in Elderly Patients with Osteoarthritis: A Prospective Cohort Study

Jeel Moya-Salazar (), Jordy R. Olortegui-Panaifo, Hans Contreras-Pulache (), Eliane A. Goicochea-Palomino and Marx E. Morales-Martinez
Additional contact information
Jeel Moya-Salazar: Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Señor Sipan, Chiclayo 14002, Peru
Jordy R. Olortegui-Panaifo: Oficina de Normalización Previsional, YAYAQ Casa del Pensionista, Lima 51001, Peru
Hans Contreras-Pulache: Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Norbert Wiener, Lima 15046, Peru
Eliane A. Goicochea-Palomino: Faculty of Health Science, Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, Lima 15074, Peru
Marx E. Morales-Martinez: Department of Rehabilitation, Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loayza, Lima 15077, Peru

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Osteoarthritis is the most common disease among the elderly population and is expected to be one of the leading causes of physical disability worldwide. Our objective was to compare the effects of physiotherapeutic interventions versus pharmacological treatment on outcomes and quality of life in elderly patients with osteoarthritis. This cohort study was conducted on 119 elderly individuals aged 60 to 95 years (58.8% women) from the YUYAQ nursing home. Two groups were divided: the intervention group (58 individuals–48.7%) received a two-month physiotherapy program, and the control group (61–51.5%) received exclusive use of anti-inflammatories. Between the intervention and control groups, we observed significant improvements (all p < 0.001) regarding pain (93.1% vs. 60.75%), stiffness (94.8% vs. 62.3%), and functional capacity (96.6% vs. 68.9%). Additionally, the intervention group showed better quality of life than the control group (13.81 vs. 41.38, p < 0.001). Quality of life improvement and clinical outcomes in the treatment group significantly improved in all areas of osteoarthritis, primarily in hip, spine, and knee osteoarthritis ( p < 0.001). In conclusion, the physiotherapy intervention improved pain, stiffness, functional capacity, and quality of life in elderly patients with osteoarthritis after two months of treatment. Transitioning from pharmacological treatment to physiotherapeutic treatment in patients with osteoarthritis may substantially improve quality of life and disease symptomatology, but long-term studies are needed.

Keywords: osteoarthritis; pain; elderly; physiotherapy; quality of life; Peru (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/966/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/966/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:966-:d:1682932

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().