A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Clay Therapy on Physical Function among Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis in Selected Hospitals, Erode

Background: About 10% of adults over 60 suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), one of the most prevalent types of arthritis is Knee osteoarthritis, with a prevalence of 22% to 39% in India, osteoarthritis is the most prevalent joint disease and the most common rheumatological issue. An alternate method of treating rheumatic conditions is mud pack therapy. Its foundation is the application of heated mud packs to the body as a whole or to particular regions, like the joints. The current study's objective was to assess the effectiveness of treatment using on physical function among patients with knee osteoarthritis.  Design: Quasi experimental-non-equivalent control group pre and post-test design was selected for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used in this study. Samples included in this study were both genders with Knee osteoarthritis,30 years and above, and Stage 2, 3 & 4 Knee Osteoarthritis Standardized tool(WOMAC Scale )was used to assess the level of physical function among patients with knee osteoarthritis.  Results: The study's results indicate that, for the level of physical function assessment scale, the overall area-wise comparison between the experimental and control post-test mean percentage difference was 43%.The experimental group's pre and post test scores for patients with osteoarthritis in their knees showed highly significant variations.. Paired t test value (t=47.97, t=33.96) was higher than the table value (t=4.14) at the level of significant (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Mud therapy was effective in improving the physical function among knee osteoarthritis patients, as used by WOMAC score scale.