Comparison of the effect of hydrotherapy and physiotherapy methods in rate of kneeahce, matinal dryness, daily activities, athletic performance, and recreation activities in athletes men with knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease and non-drug treatment for it has been considered recently by various researchers. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of hydrotherapy and physiotherapy methods in rate of kneeache, matinal dryness, daily activities, athletic performance and recreational activities in athletes men with knee osteoarthritis. The subjects of research included 36 athletes with osteoarthritis of knee that were selected while having full knowledge of the performance stages of the study. They were classified randomly into three groups including hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and control groups. Then the participants completed the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) questionnaire for the evaluation of the pre-test. After the preliminary evaluation, the researchers performed the independent variables hydrotherapy, physiotherapy for 6 weeks included 4 sessions per week for gaining the next required information and the KOOS questionnaire was completed again by the patients at the end of the sixth week. The gathered data has been analyzed by one way ANOVA, and paired and independent t- tests at the level of p<0.05 using the SPSS software. The findings showed that both physiotherapy and hydrotherapy improved pain (p<0.001 and p<0.0001 respectively), symptoms and morning stiffness (p=0.004 and p<0.0001 respectively), daily activities (p<0.02 and p<0.01 respectively), athletic performance and recreational activities (p<0.03 and p<0.0001 respectively). But in comparing the effectiveness of two methods, only hydrotherapy was significantly improved athletic performance and recreational activities (p<0.0001). The results indicated that the both methods of hydrotherapy and physiotherapy can be considered as a useful method for athletes suffering from osteoarthritis, except for their impact on the athletic performance and recreational activities, they induced similar outcomes.