BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis is the most frequent illness of synovial joints and is one of the main reasons of disability in old age. The symptoms of knee osteoarthritis are as pain, morning stiffness and limited joint movements. Among different treatments, none of them is superior to the others. The goal of this study was comparing the effect of 2 physiotherapeutic treatments, feet reflexology and physiotherapy, on knee osteoarthritis in senile patients. METHODS: In a semi-experimental study, 24 patients with knee osteoarthritis who came to Tohid Physiotherapy Center in Isfahan, Iran, were completely informed of the steps of the investigation, and randomly divided in to two physiotherapeutic groups of reflexology-physiotherapy and physiotherapy. In physiotherapy group, typical treatments like ultrasound, infrared and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) were used; and in reflexology group, besides the physiotherapeutic treatments, foot reflexology was applied for 30 minutes. In both groups, a program of 24 sessions (6 weeks and 4 sessions every week) was planned. In pre- and post-test, the standard form of knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) was used to check the symptoms of patients of both groups. The data was analyzed using the covariance of variances test via SPSS software. FINDINGS: The symptoms of the patients (pain, stiffness, daily activities, working out and leisure activities) had more improvement in physiotherapy-reflexology group compared to physiotherapy group (p < 0.050). There was no significant difference between the two types of applied treatment in improving the quality of life in the patients (p = 0.111). CONCLUSION: This study shows that combination of physiotherapeutic and reflexology treatments is more effective than physiotherapeutic treatments alone, in senile patients with knee osteoarthritis. Thus, it is suggested that this program can be used to reduce the symptoms in these patients.

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