Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. The knee and hip joints are the most frequently affected. Treatments
fall into three main categories: pharmacological, nonpharmacological,
and surgical. Treatments can be applied alone or in
combination. In the last few years, within the nonpharmacological
category have been a growing importance of physical
exercise programs aimed to reduce pain in knee and hip joints. The purpose of this review was to summarize evidence for
the effectiveness and structure of exercise programs on pain in patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis. To that end, several
databases were searched, retrieving 33 studies that evaluated the influence of different exercise programs on pain. These studies
were grouped according to the characteristics of the exercise program: landbased
intervention (strength program, Tai Chi,
aerobic program), aquatic intervention (hydrotherapy), and mixed exercise programs. The main conclusions drawn were: (i)
despite recommendations for the use of exercise programs as pain therapy in patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis, very few
randomized clinical studies were conducted; (ii) the structure of the exercise programs (content, duration, frequency and duration
of the session) is very heterogeneous; (iii) on
