Time and Repetitions Needed to Train Patients with Knee Pain on a Home Exercise Program: Are Learning Styles Important?

Objective This study was designed to identify the amount of time and number of repetitions needed to explain a home exercise program recommended for most of our patients, as well as to gauge how many items patients managed to remember at their 15-day follow-up. We also considered whether the learning method had any effect on these results. Methods Sixty-two patients with mechanical knee pain who were admitted to our clinic were included in this study. Patients were categorized into the following three groups: group 1 with a dominant physical learning style, group 2 with a dominant auditory learning style, and group 3 with a dominant visual learning style. Heel slide, quadriceps isometric, quadriceps stretching, adductor isometric, abductor isometric, and quadriceps isotonic exercises were explained and demonstrated to all patients by the same physiotherapist, and the required time (in seconds) and repeats of exercises until the patients learned them were recorded. Remembered/forgotten exercises at the follow-up, which occurred 15 days later, were identified. Results A statistically significant difference was observed between groups in terms of how many seconds were needed for learning the quadriceps isometric exercises (p: 0.042). In the inter-group comparison, the difference was significant when groups 2 and 3 were compared (p: 0.046). There was a significant difference between groups in terms of how many repeats were needed for learning heel sliding (p: 0.000). Moreover, there was a significant difference between group 3 and groups 1 and 2 in the inter-group comparison (p: 0.000, p: 0.000). There was also a significant difference between groups in terms of recalling the adductor isometric exercises. Patients in group 2 were able to fully recall all these exercises. Conclusion It was found that the quadriceps isometric, heel slide, and adductor isometric exercises were more quickly learned, while the quadriceps stretching exercise was forgotten. We concluded that learning style is not highly important in exercise learning or recall.