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ABSTRACT

Background: Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is commonly seen in athletes and common symptoms are for example pain and stiffness, and difficulty in climbing stairs. Physiotherapy exercise interventions aim to increase the range of motion, strength, knee stability, balance, and functional ability. Shaping knowledge with patient education is a behaviour change technique that has proven important in musculoskeletal pain. How patient education can contribute to positive outcomes for physiotherapy exercise interventions in PFPS is unknown.

Aim: To describe the effects of physiotherapy exercise interventions including patient education for adult and adolescent athletes with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

Method: In a systematic literature review, only randomized controlled trials, on patients with a primary diagnosis of PFPS, published in English, were included. The data search was conducted by PICO in Pubmed and CINAHL. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed by using the SBU checklist.

Results: Six randomized controlled studies were included. According to the quality assessment the included studies had moderate to high quality and the outcome measures of the included studies were reliable and valid for measuring pain intensity, health-related quality of life, physical function, isometric muscle strength, and fear of movement. The results showed that physiotherapy interventions including patient education led to improved symptoms, functional ability, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome in adult and adolescent athletes.

Conclusion: Physiotherapy exercise interventions including patient education appear to increase physical function, muscle strength, and health-related quality of life and decrease pain and fear of movement for adult and adolescent athletes with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The conclusions are tentative as the review of the study quality for the included studies implied that four studies had a moderate risk of bias.