AzTrials
AzTrials

Osteoarthritis, KneeSTEP-KOANCT02653768

STepped Exercise Program for Knee OsteoArthritis

A study testing Stepped Exercise Program and Arthritis Education in people with Osteoarthritis, Knee, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
Search all trials

Trial summary

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic conditions and a leading cause of disability among Veterans. Although exercise is known to improve pain, physical abilities, and other outcomes for patients who have knee OA, most individuals with this condition are physically inactive. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
Conditions the study is for
Osteoarthritis, Knee
What is being tested?
Stepped Exercise Program and Arthritis Education
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
345 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
1 Jul 2016to 26 Jul 2019
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Veteran enrolled at the Durham VA Medical Center (VAMC)
  • Physician diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis
  • Current knee joint symptoms

Who cannot join

  • Currently meeting physical activity guidelines
  • Currently completing Physical Therapy (PT) visits for knee OA
  • Gout (in knee)
  • Rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, or other systemic rheumatic disease
  • Dementia
  • Psychosis
Show all 18Show fewer
  • Active substance abuse disorder
  • Meniscus or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in the past 6 months
  • Total joint replacement, other major lower extremity surgery in the past 6 months or planned in the next 9 months
  • Severe hearing impairment
  • Serious/terminal illness
  • Other health problem that would prohibit participation in the study and/or warrant immediate PT
  • Current participation in another OA intervention study
  • Unstable angina
  • History of ventricular tachycardia
  • Unstable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (two hospitalizations within the previous 12 months and/or on oxygen)
  • Uncontrolled hypertension (diastolic blood pressure >110 mm/Hg or systolic > 200mm/Hg)
  • Stroke with moderate to severe aphasia

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC

    Durham, North Carolina, 27705-3875

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: STepped Exercise Program for Knee Osteoarthritis (STEP-KOA)

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic conditions and a leading cause of disability among Veterans. Although exercise is known to improve pain, physical abilities, and other outcomes for patients who have knee OA, most individuals with this condition are physically inactive. Therefore there is a need to develop programs that will help Veterans and others with knee OA to increase activity levels. This study will examine a stepped approach to helping Veterans with knee OA to increase physical activity, with increasing levels of program intensity when needed for individual patients to meaningfully improve pain and physical function.

Read the detailed description

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of pain and disability among Veterans, and Department of Veterans Affairs health care users are the most severely affected. There is ample evidence that exercise improves pain, function, and other outcomes among patients with knee OA. However, the vast majority of individuals with knee OA are physically inactive. There is clearly a need to develop and implement programs that efficiently and effectively foster regular physical activity and improve key patient-centered outcomes among Veterans with knee OA. This objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness a novel STepped Exercise Program for Knee OsteoArthritis (STEP-KOA).

This will be a randomized controlled trial of n=345 Veterans with symptomatic knee OA in two VA Integrated Networks (VISN) 6 sites, with participants assigned to two study arms: STEP-KOA and Arthritis Education Control (AE). STEP-KOA will begin with three months of access to a low-resource internet-based exercise training program that uses patient-specific information to determine and deliver an appropriate personalized exercise plan (Step 1). Participants who do not meet response criteria for clinically meaningful improvement in pain and function after three months of Step 1 will additionally receive telephone calls from an exercise counselor for three months, to facilitate adherence and address barriers to physical activity (Step 2). Participants who still fail to meet response criteria after Step 2 will receive in-person physical therapy visits, which address specific functional impairments and further tailor exercise recommendations (Step 3). Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, 3-months, 6-months, and 9 months (primary outcome time point). Veterans in the AE group will be offered participation in STEP-KOA after completing study assessments. The primary outcome will be the Western Ontario and McMasters Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), a measure of lower extremity pain, stiffness and function. The secondary outcomes will be objective measures of physical function. The main study analyses will compare the STEP-KOA intervention to the AE control condition at follow-up time points. The investigators will also evaluate patient characteristics associated with the need for progression to each Step and will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of STEP-KOA. This stepped exercise intervention is matched with patient needs, and it also provides the VA with a potential approach for focusing limited physical therapy resources toward patients who do not respond adequately to initial, less resource intensive and costly strategies to improve physical activity and related outcomes.

Being tested
Stepped Exercise Program, Arthritis Education
Keywords
Osteoarthritis, Knee, Exercise
Medical subject headings
Osteoarthritis, Knee, Motor Activity

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Stepped Exercise ProgramBehavioural

    Also called STEP-KOA

    STEP 1: Participants have access to an internet-based exercise program for knee OA.

    STEP 2: Participants have access to an internet-based exercise program for knee OA plus telephone support.

    STEP 3: Participants have access to an internet-based exercise program for knee OA plus in-person physical therapy visit

  • Arthritis EducationBehavioural

    Also called AE

    The arthritis education intervention will include bi-weekly mailings of low-literacy educational materials on a comprehensive set of topics related to OA and its management, based on established treatment guidelines.

Study groups in NCT02653768
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
STEP-KOAExperimentalThis is a stepped exercise program. It begins with an internet-based exercise training program (STEP 1). After three months, participants are assessed to see if they have achieved clinically meaningful improvement in key osteoarthritis outcomes. If so, they remain at STEP 1. If not, they move on to STEP 2, which adds telephone-based coaching. Participants are assessed again three months later. Those that still have not achieved clinically relevant improvement move on to STEP 3, which adds a series of in-person physical therapy visits.
Receives: Behavioral: Stepped Exercise Program
Arthritis Education (AE)Active comparatorParticipants in the AE control group will receive low literacy educational materials via mail every two weeks. Because STEP-KOA is a multi-component intervention, with participants receiving different numbers of Steps, it is not possible to implement a control condition that will mirror the exact intervention "dose" received by all participants in the STEP-KOA group. However, AE will achieve the goal of providing an active, OA-related control condition.
Receives: Behavioral: Arthritis Education

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC)

    This is a measure of lower extremity pain (5 items), stiffness (2 items), and function (17 items), with items rated on a Likert scale of 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (extreme symptoms). The total scale range is 0-96, and higher scores mean a worse outcome.

    Measured: Change from baseline to 3-month, 6-month, 9-month follow-ups. For STEP-KOA only, change from 9-month to 15-month follow-up.

Secondary outcomes (2)
  1. 30-second Chair Stand

    The 30 second stair stand asks participants to rise and sit back down in a chair as many times as they can during that time period, without using hands or arms for support. Higher scores mean better outcome (e.g. more stands in 30 seconds).

    Measured: Change from baseline to 9-month follow-up

  2. 40m Fast-paced Walk

    The 40m fast-paced walk is a timed test of walking twice back and forth (as fast as participants are able) over a 10m distance. Lower scores mean better outcome (e.g. faster walking speed).

    Measured: Change from baseline to 9-month follow-up

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted12 Jan 2016 (estimated)
  2. Study start1 Jul 2016
  3. Primary completion31 Mar 2019
  4. Study completion26 Jul 2019

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Masking
Single blind
Who is masked
Outcomes assessor
Enrolment
345 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02653768
Sponsor's protocol ID
IIR 14-091
Acronym
STEP-KOA
Status last verified
Feb 2024
First submitted
8 Jan 2016
Last updated
14 Feb 2024
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • Allen KD, Bongiorni D, Caves K, Coffman CJ, Floegel TA, Greysen HM, Hall KS, Heiderscheit B, Hoenig HM, Huffman KM, Morey MC, Ramasunder S, Severson H, Smith B, Van Houtven C, Woolson S. STepped exercise program for patients with knee OsteoArthritis (STEP-KOA): protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2019 May 28;20(1):254. doi: 10.1186/s12891-019-2627-8.

    PubMed 31138256
  • Boucher NA, Zullig LL, Shepherd-Banigan M, Decosimo KP, Dadolf J, Choate A, Mahanna EP, Sperber NR, Wang V, Allen KA, Hastings SN, Van Houtven CH. Replicating an effective VA program to train and support family caregivers: a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation design. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 May 6;21(1):430. doi: 10.1186/s12913-021-06448-7.

    PubMed 33952263
  • Hughes JM, Bartle JT, Choate AL, Mahanna EP, Meyer CL, Tucker MC, Wang V, Allen KD, Van Houtven CH, Hastings SN. Walking All over COVID-19: The Rapid Development of STRIDE in Your Room, an Innovative Approach to Enhance a Hospital-Based Walking Program during the Pandemic. Geriatrics (Basel). 2021 Nov 10;6(4):109. doi: 10.3390/geriatrics6040109.

    PubMed 34842733
  • Beauchamp T, Arbeeva L, Cleveland RJ, Golightly YM, Hales DP, Hu DG, Allen KD. Accelerometer-Based Physical Activity Patterns and Associations With Outcomes Among Individuals With Osteoarthritis. J Clin Rheumatol. 2022 Mar 1;28(2):e415-e421. doi: 10.1097/RHU.0000000000001750.

    PubMed 33902099
  • Allen KD, Woolson S, Hoenig HM, Bongiorni D, Byrd J, Caves K, Hall KS, Heiderscheit B, Hodges NJ, Huffman KM, Morey MC, Ramasunder S, Severson H, Van Houtven C, Abbate LM, Coffman CJ. Stepped Exercise Program for Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis : A Randomized Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2021 Mar;174(3):298-307. doi: 10.7326/M20-4447. Epub 2020 Dec 29.

    PubMed 33370174
  • Kaufman BG, Allen KD, Coffman CJ, Woolson S, Caves K, Hall K, Hoenig HM, Huffman KM, Morey MC, Hodges NJ, Ramasunder S, van Houtven CH. Cost and Quality of Life Outcomes of the STepped Exercise Program for Patients With Knee OsteoArthritis Trial. Value Health. 2022 Apr;25(4):614-621. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2021.09.018. Epub 2021 Oct 29.

    PubMed 35365305

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Stepped Exercise Program and Arthritis Education in people with Osteoarthritis, Knee, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 18 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 14 Feb 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 7 Apr 2020). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) (time frame: Change from baseline to 3-month, 6-month, 9-month follow-ups. For STEP-KOA only, change from 9-month to 15-month follow-up.). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02653768, which also lists 6 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 14 Feb 2024.

Free account

Keep searching with a free account

You’ve used your 3 free searches for this session. Log in or create a free AzTrials account to keep searching clinical trials and save the ones you want to follow.

Create a free accountLog in