SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicRehabilitation Strategies for Musculoskeletal DisordersView all 10 articles
Effect of tele-rehabilitation guided intervention on pain and function in middle-aged and elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China
- 2Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, China
- 3Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of tele-rehabilitation interventions on pain and function in middle-aged and elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). METHODS: A systematic search of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted in the EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases, covering the period from 2006 to 31 August 2025. Screening criteria were developed based on the PICOS principle. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool (RoB 2) was used to evaluate the quality of the literature, and meta-analysis was performed using STATA 15.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 12 RCTs involving 1,151 patients were included. The results showed that tele-rehabilitation was effective in VAS Pain (SMD = −0.57, 95% CI: −1.25–0.10), WOMAC pain (SMD = −0.08, 95% CI: −0.98–0.83), WOMAC function (SMD = −0.44, 95% CI: −0.88–0.00), and KOOS total (SMD = 0.52, 95% CI: −0.37–1.40), showing a trend toward improvement, but none reached statistical significance except for WOMAC function score. Sensitivity analyses showed robust results, and Egger's test did not reveal significant publication bias. CONCLUSION: Tele-rehabilitation shows positive trends in pain and functional improvement in middle-aged and elderly patients with KOA; however, current evidence is insufficient to demonstrate significant superiority. Given its good accessibility, tele-rehabilitation can be used as a complementary modality to traditional rehabilitation. More high-quality studies are needed to clarify its optimal intervention protocol and long-term efficacy.
Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, tele-rehabilitation, Pain, function, KOOS
Received: 13 Oct 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Guo, Zhang and WANG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hong WANG
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.