Mobile App-Assisted Home Exercise for Musculoskeletal Disorders

Overview This study evaluates the effectiveness of a dedicated mobile health (mHealth) application in supporting home exercise programs for patients with musculoskeletal disorders, such as neck, shoulder, back, or knee pain. The research aims to address the widespread challenge of low patient adherence to unsupervised home-based exercises. Study Design The project employs a dual-methodology approach: Clinical Trial: 30 participants presenting with neck, shoulder, back, or knee pain will be randomly assigned to either an app-assisted group or a traditional home exercise group. Both groups will undergo 4 weeks of physiotherapy. The study will compare pain intensity, physical function, and exercise adherence between the two cohorts. Retrospective Analysis: To complement the trial, the study will analyze a large-scale database containing approximately 700,000 anonymized real-world data entries. This analysis aims to observe real-time pain fluctuations before and after exercise sessions within routine clinical settings. Goal The primary objective is to determine if integrating mHealth technology into traditional rehabilitation can enhance clinical outcomes and improve patient adherence to home-based exercise routines.

Inclusion Criteria: * Aged 18 years and above * Presenting with musculoskeletal disorders leading to pain in the neck, shoulder, low back, or knee * Scoring 3 or higher on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale Exclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of malignant tumors * Presence of serious systemic or neurological conditions that may interfere with assessment or treatment, such as uncontrolled hypertension, serious cardiac diseases, or Parkinson's disease * Inability to use a mobile smartphone * Pregnancy