INTRODUCTION: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic, degenerative joint disease that when it is symptomatic, it develops in a pattern that includes inability to walk and reduction of functional capacity (FC), so its maintenance is an important requirement for a healthy aging. Thus, the aquatic physical therapy (AP) and the land one (LP) appear as alternatives for the treatment of this disease. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of AP and LP on FC of elderly diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen volunteers with clinical and radiographic diagnosis of knee OA aged between 60 and 80 were randomly distributed among groups: AP (n = 5), that performed kinesiotherapy by immersion; LP (n = 5), that performed kinesiotherapy on soil; and the control group (CG) (n = 5), that received no type of physical therapy intervention. The FC was evaluated for the time of usual gait speed, fast gait and going up and down the stairs, through photoelectric cells. RESULTS: It was observed that the participants of AP showed significant improvement in the time of usual gait (p = 0.07), fast gait (p = 0.02), going up (p = 0.02) and down the stairs (p = 0.01), There was satisfactory result in LP just for down the stairs (p = 0.04). No significant differences were found in CG. CONCLUSION: Through the results of this study, to conclude that AP is more suitable for the treatment of OA, with significantly results for improvement of FC.

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