Backwards Walking in patients following Knee and Hip Replacement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Backwards Walking Programme following Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: A feasibility Pilot Study
IRAS ID
272567
Contact name
Martha Batting
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
Backwards walking has been shown to improve balance and walking in patients who have knee Osteoarthritis. We don’t know if these benefits may also be seen after surgery with patients who have had a hip or knee replacement because of Osteoarthritis. This study will look to see if it is possible to conduct a bigger study into how effective backwards walking may be after joint replacement. Patients who come to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford for a hip or knee replacement will be invited. They will be placed into one of two groups at random: a group where they have a course of physiotherapy plus a backwards walking programme or a group where they have a course of physiotherapy. The physiotherapy will last for 12 weeks and those who take part will take part in two study assessments. The first will be before any treatment and patients will complete five measures and also be issued with a simple tick box diary to complete over the 12 weeks. The second assessment will be after the treatment and will involve the same 5 measures and the diaries will be collected in. Participants at this assessment will also be asked if they would like to take part in an interview for the study. This is to see what the patients thought of the study. During the study the researcher will record things like how many patients say ‘yes’ to the study and how many participants drop out of the treatment to understand if a bigger study could take place.
Summary of Final report
Sixty three participants took part in the backwards walk study with 33 in the intervention group and 30 in the control. We screened 335 patients for eligibility over 8 months which provided a recruitment rate of 18.8%. In total 4 participants withdrew and 17 were unable to complete the study due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time. This provided a retention rate to the study of 66.6%. Adherence to the protocol was low at 68.2% and only 59.1% of participants returned their diaries. We interviewed physiotherapists and participants following the study and found three themes: ‘Motivators to participation and trial processes’, ‘Acceptability of intervention’ and ‘Compliance to study paperwork’. The Berg Balance Scale was used as the primary outcome measure to calculate a sample size for a future definitive study and determined 132 participants would to be recruited.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0078
Date of REC Opinion
28 Apr 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion