Physical exercise and weight loss for hip and knee osteoarthritis in very old patients: a systematic review of the literature.

Background: Rheumatologic and geriatric scholarly organisations recommendations for the management of hip and knee osteoarthritis, which emphasise the usefulness of non-pharmacological therapies, are not scaled according to patient's age and physical condition. We conducted a systematic review of clinical trials on exercise and weight loss in hip and knee osteoarthritis in very old patients. Methods: Electronic search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PASCAL database, systematic search of the Cochrane Reviews, manual search in guidelines, meta-analyses and identified relevant articles. Results: We identified 83 trials, with only 2 on patients aged ≥ 75 years; we therefore lowered the mean age threshold to 70 years and found 15 trials, mainly performed in knee osteoarthritis and outpatients.