TY - JOUR AU - Bennell, Kim AU - Nelligan, Rachel K AU - Schwartz, Sarah AU - Kasza, Jessica AU - Kimp, Alexander AU - Crofts, Samuel JC AU - Hinman, Rana S PY - 2020 DA - 2020/9/28 TI - Behavior Change Text Messages for Home Exercise Adherence in Knee Osteoarthritis: Randomized Trial JO - J Med Internet Res SP - e21749 VL - 22 IS - 9 KW - knee osteoarthritis KW - exercise KW - patient compliance KW - mobile phone KW - randomized controlled trial AB - Background: Exercise is a core recommended treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA), yet adherence declines, particularly following cessation of clinician supervision. Objective: This study aims to evaluate whether a 24-week SMS intervention improves adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity compared with no SMS. Methods: A two-group superiority randomized controlled trial was performed in a community setting. Participants were people aged 50 years with knee OA and BMI ≥30 kg/m2 who had undertaken a 12-week physiotherapist-supervised exercise program as part of a preceding clinical trial. Both groups were asked to continue their home exercise program unsupervised three times per week for 24 weeks and were randomly allocated to a behavior change theory–informed, automated, semi-interactive SMS intervention addressing exercise barriers and facilitators or to control (no SMS). Primary outcomes were self-reported home exercise adherence at 24 weeks measured by the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS) Section B (0-24, higher number indicating greater adherence) and the number of days exercised in the past week (0-3). Secondary outcomes included self-rated adherence (numeric rating scale), knee pain, physical function, quality of life, global change, physical activity, self-efficacy, pain catastrophizing, and kinesiophobia. Results: A total of 110 participants (56 SMS group and 54 no SMS) were enrolled and 99 (90.0%) completed both primary outcomes (48/56, 86% SMS group and 51/54, 94% no SMS). At 24 weeks, the SMS group reported higher EARS scores (mean 16.5, SD 6.5 vs mean 13.3, SD 7.0; mean difference 3.1, 95% CI 0.8-5.5; P=.01) and more days exercised in the past week (mean 1.8, SD 1.2 vs mean 1.3, SD 1.2; mean difference 0.6, 95% CI 0.2-1.0; P=.01) than the control group. There was no evidence of between-group differences in secondary outcomes. Conclusions: An SMS program increased self-reported adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity, although this did not translate into improved clinical outcomes. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 12617001243303; https://tinyurl.com/y2ud7on5 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s12891-019-2801-z SN - 1438-8871 UR - http://www.jmir.org/2020/9/e21749/ UR - https://doi.org/10.2196/21749 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32985994 DO - 10.2196/21749 ID - info:doi/10.2196/21749 ER -