Effects of heel kicking exercise on knee pain and joint function in knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Exercise therapy is a core intervention for knee osteoarthritis (KOA). For KOA patients, active and passive stretching exercises can relieve joint pain and restore joint function. Heel kicking exercise (HKE) is a dynamic stretching method designed by the authors to rapidly reduce knee pain and restore joint function in patients with KOA. This randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the efficacy of HKE for pain and joint function in patients with KOA. METHOD: A total of 68 patients with KOA were included in this study. Eight patients were excluded, resulting in random allocation into a control group (N = 29, 1 lost to follow-up) and an observation group (N = 30). Both groups received traditional Chinese medicine hot compress therapy, oral administration of celecoxib capsules, and quadriceps contraction exercises. The control group additionally performed static stretching exercises targeting the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius muscles; conversely, the observation group performed in HKE. Changes in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index pain and stiffness indices, knee joint range of motion, Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test, Timed Up and Go Test, and Six-Minute Walk Test were assessed before treatment initiation and after 2 weeks. RESULTS: Before treatment, there were no significant differences in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index pain and stiffness score, joint range of motion, Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test, Timed Up and Go Test, and Six-Minute Walk Test levels between the 2 groups (P > .05). After treatment, the observation group outperformed the control group across all indicators (P < .05, P < .01). Patients' satisfaction within 2 groups were investigated, which showed that patients' satisfaction within the observation group were better than those in the control group (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: HKE is an effective and safe exercise therapy that significantly alleviates knee pain in patients with KOA while restoring joint function.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.007 | 0.004 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.011 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".