Authors
Kai Cheng, Zhongyi Zhang, Jiaju Zhou, Yi Tang, Wen Zhang, Xinyu Hu, Fangjie Guo, Peijian Tong, Shuaijie Lv
Published in
Journal of rehabilitation medicine. Volume 58. Pages jrm45883. Aug 10, 2026. Epub Aug 10, 2026.
Abstract
To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of heat therapy for hand osteoarthritis.
Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
9 RCTs (n = 627) from 13 identified studies included in meta-analysis.
Databases were searched up to 19 December 2025. Risk of bias was assessed via RoB 2.0. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and meta-regression were calculated using Stata 17.0.
Heat therapy significantly reduced Visual Analog Scale (SMD = -0.60, p = 0.01), Australian/Canadian Osteoarthritis Hand Index - Pain Score and Health Assessment Questionnaire (p < 0.05), and improved grip strength (SMD = 0.43, p = 0.01). No significant changes were observed for other outcome indicators. Subgroup analysis showed multimodal therapy (paraffin: heat + mechanical compression; mud: heat + chemical/mechanical stimulation) outperformed monotherapy (-heated gloves: pure thermal) for pain (SMD = -0.85) and grip strength (SMD = 0.55). Additionally, meta--regression analysis found that longer single -treatment duration (p = 0.03) and higher weekly t-reatment frequency (p = 0.04) were key moderators for better grip strength recovery.
Heat therapy, especially multimodal approaches, effectively alleviates short-term pain and improves grip strength in hand osteoarthritis. Clinicians may ensure adequate treatment frequency and duration to optimize outcomes.
PMID:
42572834
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Aug 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 2
- Comments 0