A new study points to major benefits of a static cycling programme for patients with hip osteoarthritis, the research suggesting that it could help save the NHS money and cut physiotherapy waiting lists.
It comes from Bournemouth University and University Hospital Dorset (UHB). The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is to be published in Lancet Rheumatology.
The study concludes that participants who took part in a weekly cycling and education session reported better recovery outcomes compared to participants who only undertook regular physiotherapy.
Bournemouth University suggests this means patients with hip osteoarthritis could potentially achieve better outcomes in a group setting using a cycling and education class, with less clinical time required when compared with standard one-to-one physiotherapy.
The research looked at the “CHAIN” intervention, a programme first launched in 2013 and which consists of a weekly education session and static cycling class that takes place over eight weeks for patients suffering from hip osteoarthritis (OA).
A five-year follow-up showed “significant improvement” in hip function after treatment compared with usual physiotherapy care, while the majority of participants were still using self-management strategies to manage hip pain. In total, 57 per cent had not pursued surgical intervention.
The university notes that osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability and as many as 3.2 million people in the UK suffer from hip OA.
Tom Wainwright is a professor of orthopaedics at Bournemouth University and a physiotherapist at UHD. He was the chief investigator of the study and commented: “For the time it takes to treat one patient using standard physiotherapy, we can treat multiple patients in a group session and provide them with better outcomes. This has proved to be more cost-effective than standard treatment and so we hope this will contribute to reducing NHS waiting times for physiotherapy treatment in the future.
“We previously knew that CHAIN worked and benefitted patients. What this latest study has shown is that it improves clinical outcomes and is far more cost-effective when compared to usual physiotherapy care.”
Fellow professor and orthopaedic surgeon Rob Middleton added: “Hip replacements cost the NHS over £6,000 per patient, so avoiding surgery for hip problems reduces the burden on the NHS, saves money, and provides better outcomes for patients. Now with this new study we can also see the potential for static cycling to save further money for the NHS by bringing down waiting lists for physiotherapy.”
The university spoke with one participant, Sue, who could barely get on the spin bike in the first week but, by the third week, had “already noticed a positive difference in my hip”.
“After the programme I was walking and dancing and grateful to have a good night’s sleep again,” she said.
It is hoped CHAIN can be rolled out at a national level, with Bournemouth University working on a virtual course that could be accessed on an education app. Individuals would be able to follow the programme from their home or gym on any static bike.
“By providing an app to help people manage their hip pain virtually and by supporting other clinicians with a toolkit to set up their own CHAIN programmes, the outcomes in the future could change the way we treat hip pain on a national and international level, helping to benefit our patients and improve lives for thousands of people,” Professor Wainwright concluded.
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8 thoughts on “Static cycling programme could save NHS money and slash physiotherapy waiting lists, study suggests”
Just wait ’till they find out
Just wait ’till they find out how much benefit (including to mental health) a non-static cycling program could bring! [1] [2] [what it looks like]
Never mind an incidental exercise programme, for the whole population, not just those with currently diagnosed conditions.
Of course … no matter how much it saves, that won’t fly in places like the UK, until it does (I have some hope as things can sometimes crawl in undetected despite “the markets”).
IMHO that’s politics; that is funded by those who are doing very well from the status quo or developments of it and are thus extremely unlikely to pick less (money)-centralising lower-tech lower-impact options. (Those are almost all hard to sell – we all rely on the mundane (cleaning, repairs) but almost nobody is interested in it). And to some extent everyone’s natural resistence to change.
Vested interests seldom have
Vested interests seldom have any inclination towards change and even less of an interest in change from which they will seldom profit. It’s almost as if they only want others to lead fit, healthy lives if there’s coin to be made.
General case: “It is
General case: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
If you broaden “salary” to position or prestige I think that’s much of the bad or short-sighted choices of authorities and businesses they employ covered.
Sure, there *are* ideologies which are simply against things which would help – like “less spend on private motoring” (because “individual choice” and “less state interference” and “business” – all debatable of course). But politicos can be remarkably pragmatic if they feel their position depends on it, or if there are pots of cash floating about…
Part of the problem is that
Part of the problem is that the msm simply refuses to even mention the incredible benefits of utility cycling, they literally have a blanket ban on it. There have been hundreds of reports extolling cycling as the answer to so many of society’s problems, but for the msm, they are completely invisible.
The BBC for instance, has several programmes about changing your life to improve your health, some going back decades: not a mention of cycling, despite the fact it is, for most people, the single most effective way of improving their health.
After I tore my cruciate
After I tore my cruciate ligament playing football with my sons, I was very frustrated at not being able to run or even play in goal. I was delighted to find that once the initial healing had started, cycling actually helped. The cruciate would feel well worked after cycling, but not sore. So I kept riding, doing more and more until I was back doing BMX training sessions. The linear motion of cycling helped heal the cruciate and it’s been fine since.
My friend recently had a
My friend recently had a complete knee replacement, in which her patella broke, and has had other medical complications which have hampered her recovery. HOWEVER, part of her current regime is to do some brief work on an exercise bike. Not very much, I think three minutes forwards and three minutes backwards a couple of times in any one session.
Given the audience, it is perhaps inevitable that many of the comments on here have gone straight to the general medical benfits of actual cycling as experienced by members, and there’s not much to argue about there, but it does dismiss the benefits of incorporating cycling into a controlled rehabilitation programme, and for many that can only be achieved (to start with at least) by using apporpriately adjusted static bikes as a tool for physiotherapy.
As people progress, some of them may be able to try a moving bike, but that’s going to be impractical for many.
On a personal note, I had problems with my hip, and once I’d got over the worst of it, I found cycling (on a moving bike) to help. I’m not 100% sure if it helped directly, or if it was simply an option for exercise that didn’t make things worse, but I’m sure a lot was to do with the controlled movement – as well as having a lot less weight on the joint.
A lot of people with hip and knee problems would benefit from some time on a bike, and if they have to start on a static bike – great.
Hopefully this is the kind of study that will encourage more physiotherapists to incorporate cycling into their rehabilitation programmes. And if the controlled movement provided by static bikes allows for a physio to support multiple patients in one session – even better.
Exercise would benefit a huge
Exercise would benefit a huge amount of the population on a personal level and it would benefit the countrys finances even more. It might even lead to shocking things like better active travel infrastructure.
mctrials23 wrote:
Agree, although I still doubt the last part … except where “exercise” stretches to “independent mobility for children” [1] [2]. Chicken and egg as usual but that has a chance of establishing a profoundly change in how we look at travel and indeed public space design and planning (and an overall happier and healthier population).