Is exercise helpful for hand osteoarthritis?

Effect of exercise on the knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) was well documented in the number of reports. But for hand OA the effect remains uncertain. Therefore, in this systematic review, the author showed the significant impact of exercise on hand pain, function, and finger joint stiffness postintervention.  

To examine the advantages and harms of exercise as compared with other interventions, including placebo or no intervention, in people suffering from hand osteoarthritis (OA).

This is a systematic review using the Cochrane Collaboration methodology. Six electronic databases were searched up until Sep 2015.

Seven trials were considered in the review, and up to 5 trials (n = 381) were comprised in the pooled analyses with data from post-intervention. As compared to no exercise, low-quality evidence pointed that exercise might better the hand pain [5 trials, standardized mean difference (SMD) -0.27, 95% CI from -0.47 to -0.07], finger joint stiffness (4 trials, SMD -0.36, 95% CI from-0.58 to -0.15) and also, hand function (4 trials, SMD -0.28, 95% CI from -0.58 to 0.02) in people suffering from hand OA.
Quality of life was assessed by 1 study (113 participants) having very low-quality evidence for no difference. Three studies described adverse events as very few and not severe.

The pooled results from 5 studies with low risk of bias depicted low-quality evidence varying from small to moderate with the beneficial effects of exercise on hand pain, function, and finger joint stiffness postintervention. The estimated effect sizes were small. Hence, whether they represent a clinically significant change may be debated.