A new study has found that people with knee problems caused by a meniscal tear and osteoarthritis felt much better after doing regular home exercises.
The research was led by a team from Mass General Brigham and shows that even simple exercises done at home can lead to big improvements in knee pain.
The study followed 879 people with an average age of 59.
These participants had both a meniscal tear—a common knee injury—and osteoarthritis, a condition where the knee joint wears down and causes pain and stiffness. They were split into three groups to test different treatments.
One group only did exercises at home. A second group did the same home exercises but also met regularly with a physical therapist. A third group did the home exercises and went to what researchers called “sham physical therapy,” which included fake treatments that don’t actually work.
The home exercise program was simple: 25 minutes of stretching and strengthening exercises for the legs, four times a week. Participants got a video and pamphlets to help them follow along.
The physical therapy groups had scheduled visits over three months—twice a week in the first month, once a week in the second month, and every other week in the third.
The real physical therapy involved guided stretches, strengthening moves, hands-on help, and balance training. The sham therapy included fake techniques like pretend massage or non-working ultrasound.
When researchers looked at the results after three months, all groups showed big improvements in knee pain, but there weren’t major differences between the groups.
However, at six months and again at twelve months, people who had regular visits with a therapist—whether real or sham—reported slightly better pain relief than those who just did the home exercises.
This may sound odd, but the researchers think it’s not the physical therapy exercises that made the biggest difference—it might be the simple act of seeing and talking to a therapist. Having someone check in, offer encouragement, and provide support may have helped people stay on track and feel better over time.
Lead author Dr. Jeffrey Katz, a specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that all participants started with fairly bad knee pain, but by the end of the study, most had much less pain—no matter which treatment they received.
He also noted that both the real and fake therapy groups improved more than the home-exercise-only group, likely because of the supportive interaction with the therapist.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and took place at several major research centers, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the University at Buffalo, the Cleveland Clinic, and the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Katz pointed out that this research focused on typical 30-minute one-on-one physical therapy sessions, which are common in the United States. So, the results may not apply to longer or group therapy sessions or places that have different therapy schedules.
Overall, this study shows that home exercises can be a powerful tool for knee pain relief—and that simply talking with a supportive therapist might offer extra benefits, even if the exercises themselves are the same.
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The study is published in New England Journal of Medicine.
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