PTOTRCTJournal of rehabilitation medicine2022

Association Between Measures of Muscle Strength and Performance of Daily Activities in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis.

Arjan De Zwart, Joost Dekker, Simon Verberne and 4 others

PMID 35775838

WHAT IT FOUND

Isokinetic peak strength predicted walking, chair-rise and stair-climb performance better than estimated 1-RM in knee OA.

The expected activity-specific pattern for 1-RM was not found. These two strength measures reflect different constructs.

Key findings

01Isokinetic peak strength showed stronger associations with daily activity performance than estimated 1-RM across all analyses.

02The hypothesized rank order for estimated 1-RM associations with specific activities was rejected; walking was not more strongly associated with 1-RM than chair rising or stair climbing.

03The correlation between change in isokinetic peak strength and change in estimated 1-RM was negligible, suggesting they measure different constructs.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs

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What it does not show

The physical therapist assessing estimated 1-RM was not blinded to treatment allocation, which could introduce bias in the strength measurements. The study was a secondary analysis of an RCT, not a primary trial designed to test the relationship between strength and function. The 10-RM test used to estimate 1-RM may not adequately capture the muscular endurance required for tasks like the 6-minute walk test. The sample included patients with vitamin D levels > 15 nmol/L, which may limit generalizability to severely deficient populations.

Declared interests

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

The easy way to misread this

Do not assume that improving a patient's leg-press 1-RM will directly translate to better walking or stair-climbing performance. The study found that these two strength measures reflect different constructs and that changes in one did not correlate with changes in the other.

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