the effect of aquatic and non-aquatic balance training on the fall risk of patients with grade 2 and 3 knee osteoarthritis: a randomized clinical trial

Objectives: to compare the efficacy of balance exercises in the aquatic and non-aquatic environments compared with control in patients with grade 2 or 3 knee osteoarthritis (oa). methods: for this single-blind, randomized control trial study, 43 women with mild to moderate knee oa were recruited through a simple non-probability sampling method. they were randomly assigned to the aquatic balance exercise group (n=15), non-aquatic balance exercise group (n=15), and a control group (n=13). the intervention programs comprised aquatic and non-aquatic balance training. fall risk, the primary outcome, was measured by the biodex balance system before and after the intervention. one-way anova and paired sample t-test were used for analyzing data. results: after 4 weeks training, the mean±sd fall risk score significantly decreased from 3.49±1.14 to 2.59±1.22 (p<0.001) in the aquatic balance training group, from 3.21±0.62 to 2.19±0.62 (p<0.001) in the non-aquatic balance training group, and from 3.77±1.13 to 3.17±1.22 (p<0.001) in the control group. regarding between- group comparisons, we found significant differences between the non-aquatic balance training group and the control group (p=0.03). discussion: despite the environment, the balance exercise program significantly improved fall risk scores among patients with grade 2 or 3 knee osteoarthritis.