Usability Testing of a New Tool for Tracking Therapeutic Exercise Patterns in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background: Therapists are faced with some challenges of convincing individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to do therapeutic exercises. Objectives: This study aimed to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a tool in tracking therapeutic exercise patterns. Methods: In this pilot study, the designed tool was an invention (registration no.: A61B 5/00) consisting of four movement patterns designed on a map for tracking movement patterns by users through laser light. A total of 16 subjects with knee OA participated in this pilot study, including a control group (n = 8) and an intervention (n = 8) group. The exercises for both groups were static stretching and straight-leg-raise exercises. The control and the intervention groups did therapeutic exercises in traditional methods with the designed tool for 4 weeks, respectively. Pain intensity, range of motion (ROM), and satisfaction are measured before and after the intervention. Results: After the intervention, median ROM and pain intensity during rest and activities significantly decreased in both groups. Intergroup comparison showed that median knee flexion in the intervention group was more significantly increased, compared to that of the control group. Furthermore, pain intensity during rest and activities in the intervention group was more significantly decreased than in the control group. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in knee extension. Additionally, the participants in the intervention group expressed significantly higher treatment satisfaction than the control group. Conclusions: For tracking therapeutic exercise patterns, a tracking therapeutic exercise pattern tool could result in increasing the flexion range of the knee joint and reducing more pain in patients with OA, compared to conventional exercises. Participants are more interested in using the pattern tracking method for doing exercises than the usual method.