Benefits of education and exercise therapy delivered by physiotherapists for people with patellofemoral pain: (BEEP) pilot trial

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is the second most common diagnosis of the lower extremity presenting in sports and orthopaedic centers. Exercise therapy has been reported as successful for the short term, while long-term outcomes have remained poor. A possible reason to this lack of long-term efficacy may include failure to follow accepted principles of exercise prescription and specificity. However, it is unclear if this exercise therapy needs to follow the specific principles of exercise prescription and specificity of training or could be provided by a physiotherapist in a simpler online format to be effective AIMS: In this context, this project will compare the effect of 2 different physiotherapist­delivered interventions (12-weeks exercise program and 12-weeks education program) on pain, function, and pressure pain threshold (PPT) in people with patellofemoral pain. METHODS: Thirty participants with PFP will undergo a baseline assessment (pain, function and pressure pain threshold). Then, they will be randomized in two groups: physiotherapist-delivered exercise group (8 sessions supervised by physiotherapist), in which they will undergo a 12-weeks progressive resistance training; and physiotherapist-delivered education group (8 sessions supervised by physiotherapist), in which they will receive an online access to a patient education platform. They will be assisted by a physiotherapist through consultations via Skype. Follow up assessment will be made immediately following the interventions. The worst pain level at the previous week will be assessed using the visual analogue scale; function will be assessed using validated questionnaires; PPT will be assessed using a pressure algometer, at the knee and at the elbow. The pain, function and PPT scores will be compared among periods of time (baseline assessment and post-intervention assessment) and between groups using a mixed analysis of variance. (AU)