The ability of a sustained within-session finding of pain reduction during traction to dictate improved outcomes from a manual therapy approach on patients with osteoarthritis of the hip.

OBJECTIVES

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE TO: (1) determine the association of a within-session finding after traction of the hip with self-report of well-being, pain, and self-report of function at 9 weeks; and (2) to determine if the interactions between the within-session finding and the outcome measure are different between groups of patients with hip OA who receive and who do not receive manual therapy.

METHODS

Data were retrospectively analysed in 70 subjects who were part of a randomized control trial. Correlation analyses of within-session findings from the initial visit after traction of a concordantly painful hip were compared to self-report measures for function, pain, and well-being at 9 weeks. A comparison of slope coefficients between manual therapy and non-manual therapy groups was performed to determine the interactive aspects of the within-session finding.

RESULTS

Although the correlations for the manual therapy group were higher than for the supervised neglect group, none of the correlational analyses for both groups was strong or significant. Significant differences in the slope coefficients for well-being and pain were found, suggesting that the interactions between the within-session findings and the targeted outcomes were different in the manual therapy group versus supervised neglect group.

DISCUSSION

These findings suggest that within-session findings during the initial evaluation are not strongly related to a positive outcome after manual therapy, although the interaction of the finding of a within-session change and the use of manual therapy is more compelling than the finding in a sample of patients who did not receive manual therapy.