Addition of immersive virtual reality-mediated programs with conventional physiotherapy on quality of life in knee osteoarthritis – A protocol of a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating condition causing persistent pain that significantly impacts a patient’s physical and psychological wellbeing, ultimately reducing their quality of life. Existing research predominantly compares immersive virtual reality (IVR) with passive treatments of electrotherapy, neglecting comparisons with active exercise-based conventional physiotherapy interventions. This trial investigates the effectiveness of IVR-mediated programs in addition to conventional physiotherapy on quality of life, fear of movement, and pain self-efficacy in knee OA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study has been planned to be conducted in a musculoskeletal outpatient department. A total of 96 patients will be screened for OA according to ACR criteria and randomly allocated to two groups: Group-A (IVR-based exercise program + conventional physiotherapy) and Group-B (conventional physiotherapy). The primary outcome would be Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and the secondary outcomes are psycho-cognitive domains such as Tampa scale of kinesiophobia and pain self-efficacy and muscle strength and functional performance test. The patients will undergo 6 weeks of supervised exercise programs, and outcomes measures will be recorded before the first treatment session and post treatment at 6 weeks and follow-up at the 12 th week and 24 th week. Normality of the data will be analyzed using Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. Descriptive statistics will be expressed in either mean and standard deviation or median and 95% confidence interval based on normality. Effect Size Index (ESI) will be calculated for all the groups in postintervention after 6 weeks. Comparison of outcome measures will be done for both within and between group analyses at the different points of time with respective statistics using SPSS-20.0 program. A P value < 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. CONCLUSION: By identifying the most effective intervention in both physical and psychosocial impairments in managing OA knee, this study may be helpful for clinicians to opt the therapeutic intervention that treats OA knee patients suffering from pain, kinesiophobia, and compromised quality of life.