Effects of Local Vibration and Foam Rolling on Hip Pain and Function in Mild to Moderate Hip Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND

Local vibration and foam rolling effectively reduce muscle soreness and improve the function of damaged muscles. However, their efficacy in decreasing hip pain and improving function in patients with hip osteoarthritis remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of local vibration and foam rolling on hip pain and function in patients with mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis.

METHODS

Thirty-five patients with mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to the local vibration, foam rolling, and exercise groups. All patients underwent the assigned interventions at home daily for four weeks. The primary outcome was hip pain intensity assessed by a visual analog scale. The secondary outcomes were physical functions, including range of motion of the hip joint, physical function, such as gait velocity and timed up-and-go test, physical activity, pain catastrophizing scale, Harris hip score, and hip disability and osteoarthritis outcome score.

RESULTS

After four weeks of intervention, significant group × time interactions were observed for hip pain during walking (p = 0.02, partial η = 0.16) and hip adduction range of motion (p = 0.02, partial η = 0.26). Post-hoc analysis showed greater improvements in hip pain and range of motion in the local vibration and foam rolling groups compared to the exercise group. No significant interactions were found for the other outcomes.

CONCLUSION

These results suggested that local vibration and foam rolling effectively reduced hip pain and improved hip adduction range of motion in patients with mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis. However, there was no additional effect on other physical functions.