Exercise in osteoarthritis: moving from prescription to adherence

Exercise is recommended for the management of osteoarthritis (OA) in all clinical guidelines irrespective of disease severity, pain levels, and functional status. For knee OA, evidence supports the benefits of various types of exercise for improving pain and function in the short term. However, there is much less research investigating the effects of exercise in patients with OA at other joints such as the hip and hand. It is important to note that while the magnitude of exercise benefits may be considered small to moderate, these effects are comparable to reported estimates for simple analgesics and oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for OA pain but exercise has much fewer side effects. Exercise prescription should be individualized based on assessment findings and be patient centered involving shared decision making between the patient and clinician. Given that patient adherence to exercise declines over time, appropriate attention should be pain as reduced adherence attenuates the benefits of exercise. Given this, barriers and facilitators to exercise should be identified and strategies to maximize long-term adherence to exercise implemented.