A total of 110 community-living elderly persons with chronic hip andlor knee pain, all of whom met American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for osteoarthritis (OA), were interviewed to obtain information about their performance of therapeutic joint exercises and exercise-related medical care. Although exercises are considered standard treatment for OA and 96% of subjects had seen a physician for the problem, fewer than half had received medical advice to exercise and very few had received thorough exercise-related teaching and monitoring. Arthritis specialists provided significantly more support for exercising than primary care physicians. Forty percent of the total sample and 63% of those advised by a physician to exercise were making some attempt to do so; however, only 10% were exercising in a rnmner that might be expected to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit. Supportive medical care was highly related to frequency of exercising.Expert opinion holds that therapeutic strengthening and stretching joint exercises can improve patient comfort and function in osteoarthritis (OA) and are
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