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Guideline for the management of knee and hip osteoarthritis
Recommendations
It may be appropriate to offer a short course of massage therapy for some people with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis (OA). This should be considered only as an adjunctive treatment to enable engagement with active management strategies, and only for short term, cognisant of issues related to cost and access.
Conditional for recommendation
Low
It may be appropriate to offer a short course of manual therapy (stretching, soft tissue and/or joint mobilisation and/ or manipulation) for some people with knee and/or hip OA. This should be considered only as an adjunctive treatment to enable engagement with active management strategies and only for short term, cognisant of issues related to cost and access.
Very low
We strongly recommend weight management for people with knee and/or hip OA. For those who are overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥25 kg/m2) or obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2), a minimum weight loss target of 5–7.5% of body weight is recommended. It is beneficial to achieve a greater amount of weight loss given that a relationship exists between the amount of weight loss and symptomatic benefits. Weight loss should be combined with exercise for greater benefits. For people of healthy body weight, education about the importance of maintaining healthy body weight is essential.
Strong for recommendation (weight management)
Conditional for recommendation (combination weight management plus exercise)
It may be appropriate to offer local heat therapy (eg hot packs) as a self-management home strategy for some people with knee and/or hip OA. This should be considered only as an adjunctive treatment.
We suggest not offering local cold application (eg ice packs) for people with knee and/or hip OA.
Conditional against recommendation
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Administrative-report.pdf (PDF 2.76 MB)
Algorithm-Holistic-assessment-diagnosis-and-management-of-knee-and-hip-osteoarthritis.pdf (PDF 0.05 MB)
Guideline-for-the-management-of-knee-and-hip-osteoarthritis-2nd-ed-Appendix-1.pdf (PDF 0.04 MB)
Guideline-for-the-management-of-knee-and-hip-osteoarthritis-2nd-ed-Appendix-2.pdf (PDF 0.05 MB)
Implementation-plan.pdf (PDF 1.79 MB)
Public-consultation-summary.pdf (PDF 0.29 MB)
Technical-document.pdf (PDF 5.79 MB)
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