Feasibility of Multimodal Physical Therapy in Hispanic American Older Adults with Moderate Knee Osteoarthritis

Little is known about the feasibility of multimodal physical therapy for knee osteoarthritis (OA) among Spanish-speaking older Hispanic American adults with moderate symptomatic knee OA. The primary aim of this pilot study was to explore feasibility, and the secondary aim was to explore clinical changes after the intervention. Hispanic American older adults with moderate knee OA were recruited from an urban health system. Participants attended 10, small group, physical therapy clinic visits over 8 weeks, followed by 4 weekly support phone calls. The intervention was led in Spanish and included progressive lower body strengthening and cycling exercise, manual therapy, and self-management training. Feasibility was explored by using descriptive statistics to document the recruitment, retention, and adherence to exercise and clinic sessions. Eighteen of the 20 participants who enrolled came from sending 500 targeted recruitment letters, median age of 62.5 (range: 51 to 75) years; 85% completed the study. Median exercise adherence was 3.2 (range: 1.8-7) days per week for the 12-week study duration. Preliminary estimates of change in the clinical measures were promising however the study was not powered to detect changes. Multimodal physical therapy was feasible in Spanish-speaking older HA adults with moderate knee OA however recruitment was low.