Walk At Least 10 Minutes a Day for Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis: Recommendation for Minimal Activity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in unprecedented changes in how the world socially interacts. Limits on contact with others, whether by social distancing or shelter-at-home recommendations, have negatively affected physical activity (PA); this is especially true for adults over the age of 60 who are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19. Adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one particularly vulnerable group over the age of 60. Knee OA alone affects over one-third of the general population over 60 years of age1 and is a leading cause of functional limitation (e.g., difficulty climbing stairs, getting up from a chair)2. There is no cure for OA, but rather, treatment focuses on symptom management. Medical societies and clinical practice guidelines uniformly promote exercise as a first-line treatment approach for knee OA, with exercise shown to have greater improvements on pain and fewer adverse side effects when compared to nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs3. However, translating seemingly straightforward recommendations for exercise into practical messages remains problematic and a major problem during COVID-19, when physical activity is reduced. While previous work has reported that motivation for PA increases when adults with knee OA are provided a specific exercise prescription that factors in their condition, health professionals often struggle in making these specific exercise recommendations, resulting in a gap between treatment guidelines and actual practice. Hence, we chose to make a minimal PA recommendation for adults with knee OA over 60 years. Our goal is to limit risk of inactivity-related … Address correspondence to D.K. White, University of Delaware, Department of Physical Therapy, 540 South College Ave, 210L, Newark, DE 19713, USA. Email: dkw{at}udel.edu.

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