Effect of an 8-week hot spring water exercise program on body composition, knee isokinetic muscle function, range of motion, and the Korean Western Ontario and Mcmaster Universities index in middle-age females with osteoarthritis in Republic of Korea: experiment study

Ki Hong Kim; Byung Kwan Kim; Jae Heon Son; Jun Sik Park; Sang Hyun Lee; Hwan Jong Jeong

doi:10.25289/ML.24.026

Med Lasers 2024; 13(3): 155-165 https://doi.org/10.25289/ML.24.026

Effect of an 8-week hot spring water exercise program on body composition, knee isokinetic muscle function, range of motion, and the Korean Western Ontario and Mcmaster Universities index in middle-age females with osteoarthritis in Republic of Korea: experiment study

Ki Hong Kim¹, Byung Kwan Kim², Jae Heon Son³, Jun Sik Park², Sang Hyun Lee³, Hwan Jong Jeong³

¹Department of Recreation and Leisure Sports, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
²Sports Science Institute, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
³Department of Sports Healthcare, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to: Hwan Jong Jeong
E-mail: ssilverman@naver.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-7008

Received: September 3, 2024; Accepted: September 19, 2024; Published online: September 30, 2024.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract: Background: This study aimed to investigate the effects of applying the hot spring water exercise for 8 weeks to middle-aged females with knee osteoarthritis.
Methods: To investigate this, body composition, isokinetic muscle function, and the knee flexion angle K-WOMAC were evaluated before and after the 8-week hot spring water exercise program and analyzed using a mixed-design two-way ANOVA. After analysis, if a significant difference was observed, the Bonferroni method was used as a post hoc method, and the following results were obtained.
Results: First, among the body composition parameters, the body fat percentage showed a statistically significant reduction after the 8-week hot spring water exercise program in the exercise group (EG) (p = .031). However, there was no significant difference in body weight, muscle mass, body fat mass, and body mass index. Among the isokinetic muscle functions, the peak torque (p = .003, p = .001) and total work (p = .003, p = .003) of the flexion and extension movements, and the average power (p = .007) of the flexion movement significantly increased in the EG, while the average power of the extension movement did not change. The range of joint motion significantly increased after the exercise. The K-WOMAC index significantly decreased after the exercise.
Conclusion: Thus, the 8-week aquatic exercise program utilizing hot springs improved knee extension and flexion muscle strength. Hence, it is believed that it can be used as an interventional therapy for low back pain in the elderly and for obese people who have difficulty with land-based exercises.; Keywords: Osteoarthritis; Exercise; Range of motion; Body composition