Effect of Hand Exercise Programme on Pain and Grip Strength Amongst Post-Menopausal Women with Hand Osteoarthritis - A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: Hand osteoarthritis is heterogenous condition in which there is multiple joint involvement of the hands. Due to that functional ability of hand gets affected. In post-menopausal women, there are several complications occurs such as osteoarthritis, insomnia, cardio-vascular diseases, etc. The purpose of the study is to determine whether hand exercises can help postmenopausal patients with osteoarthritis in their hands. The main focus of the study was hand pain and grip strength which was directly affect the functionality of hand. The study was done for 2 months in which the exercises were divided in 3 stages on the basis of progression and weeks. The findings showed that after the treatment there is significant pain reduction and improvement in grip strength. Aim: To study the effect of hand exercise programme on pain and grip strength amongst post-menopausal women in hand osteoarthritis. Methodology: Total 50 Post-Menopausal female participants were selected from the community of Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad. Those participants were selected according to the inclusion criteria as Hand Pain, Morning Stiffness, weak grip. Outcome Measures: McGill’s Questionnaire Hand Dynamometer American/Canadian Osteoarthritic Hand Index Result: The Result shows that in Hand Pain, Grip Strength and Hand Function there is a significant statistical reliable difference between the pre & post treatment values with p-value is less than the 5% significance level (i.e. 0.001 < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study concluded that there is significant improvement in Grip strength and lowers the pain which simultaneously improved the patients Hand Function Key words: Hand Osteoarthritis, Grip strength, Hand Dynamometer, Therapy putty