Principal Investigator: Professor Marius Henriksen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark
Institution conducting the research: Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
Collaborators:
- Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark (Drs. Tanja Schjødt Jørgensen, Cecilie Bartholdy, Thomas Bandholm and Mathias Ried-Larsen)
- University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Drs. Lauren King and Esther Waugh)
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (Prof. Kim Bennell)
- Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Drs. Jos Runhaar and Dieuwke Schiphof)
What is the study about?
Exercise and physical activity is important for a healthy life. However, many people with painful knee osteoarthritis have difficulties doing exercise and being physically active due to limitations caused by knee pain and other symptoms. But not all types of physical exercise limit all people, and many people ask for inspiration for ways of doing exercise despite having a painful knee.
This study aims to generate a catalogue of exercise types that are "knee-friendly" based on inputs from a large number of people with knee osteoarthritis from across the world. The catalogue will serve as an inspiration for people with knee osteoarthritis who can find activities that people with similar traits have rated as knee friendly.
This study is part of an international collaboration with surveys collected in Australia, Canada, Denmark and Holland. The research collaboration involves researchers from University of Melbourne, University of Toronto, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam and Copenhagen University Hospital. The research is funded by the Danish health insurance company Sygeforsikringen “danmark”.
Who can participate?
People with painful knee osteoarthritis who are interested in sharing their experiences and/or thoughts about doing physical exercises in a "knee-friendly" way.
How do I know if I have knee osteoarthritis?
If you have knee pain and your doctor has told you that you have osteoarthritis of the knee.
If you do not have a diagnosis from your doctor, you can participate if you
- Are 45 years or older, and
- Have knee pain with activity (e.g. walking, standing, exercising), and
- Have either no morning knee joint stiffness or morning knee joint stiffness that lasts no longer than 30 minutes
What will I have to do?
This study consists of 3 phases
PHASE 1:
Initially you will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding eligibility.
Then, the survey will ask you to share your experiences and/or thoughts about physical exercises that you can imagine are feasible to engage in without provoking your knee symptoms to an unacceptable level. By unacceptable level, we mean that the exercise would cause symptoms that are severe and/or last for more than 24 hours.
Please be aware that it can be OK to do physical exercise with some knee pain, but the knee pain should be no more than mild-to-moderate. It is well established that exercise will reduce knee pain over time. The survey will take approximately 30 minutes.
PHASE 2:
The experiences and thoughts generated by all the participants will collected in a list of exercises. This list will be reviewed by experts in osteoarthritis and exercise physiology and each proposed exercise will be labelled with a frequency, intensity and duration to meet the requirements for increasing health.
PHASE 3:
The list will then be returned to the participants (you) who now will rate the exercises for "knee friendliness" based on the additional information from the experts. To be part of this phase, we need your email address, which you can provide in phase 1.
There is no in-person contact during this study. Consent, questionnaires, and list generation/review are completed online and via email contact. There are no known risks to participating in this study.
What are the benefits to participating?
By participating you may get inspired by other participants to try new exercise types that you may find fun and beneficial for your health. Your participation will also provide wider benefits to the community by providing important information on how people like you can exercise despite having painful knee osteoarthritis and thereby maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.
Confidentiality:
If you chose not to provide us with our email address in phase 1, you will remain 100 per cent anonymous, but cannot partake in Phase 3.
Only information necessary to meet the scientific goals of this study will be collected. To ensure the security and confidentiality of electronic data, data collected online will be stored on a secure server located at the Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. For security issues, information that is transmitted will be sent securely via encrypted HTTPS connection, preventing interception by a third party.
Contact:
You can contact the research group by sending us an email: exercise-catalogue.bispebjerg-frederiksberg-hospitaler@regionh.dk