PhD Conferral Mrs. Stefanie Rewald, MSc.

Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, aquatic cycling, cycling in water, knee pain, exercise, MUMC+, Maastricht Sport, therapeutic cycling, NWO Graduate subsidy

"Knee Osteoarthritis and Aquatic Cycling; Development and evaluation of an exercise programme"

Cycling, water and damaged knees – Stefanie Rewald researched whether aquatic cycling can help reduce the pain of knee osteoarthritis. It is the first time this form of training was researched in the Netherlands. Participants cycled twice a week in a swimming pool. After twelve weeks of aquatic cycling, the participants had less knee pain, more mobility and they enjoyed the exercise. Aquatic cycling, when done under expert supervision, could therefore become a new training option for the 600,000 people in the Netherlands with knee osteoarthritis. Maastricht plans to continue with this form of training and set up an aquatic cycling group at the Geusseltbad together with Maastricht Sport. Here, people can cycle at their own level. The study was conducted at the Maastricht University Medical Centre+ (MUMC+) and was financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).