Background: Osteoarthritis will be the most common joint disease in the near future and is projected to be rank second for women and fourth for men in terms of years lived with disability. WHO (2011) reports that osteoarthritis affects 9.6% of men and 18% of women worldwide. Aim: This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of hot water application and therapeutic exercise in reducing the level of osteoarthritis and joint pain among elderly. Subjects and methods: Quasi- experimental non equivalent two group pre-test and post-test design was adopted for this Study. The study was conducted selected old age homes at Puducherry. A total of 60 participants were selected by purposive sampling technique and 30 were recruited to each group. The tool used for data collection was Numerical Rating pain Scale (NPS) and WOMAC INDEX (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index). Therapeutic exercise to experimental group-I and Hot application to experimental group-II for seven days was given to both groups. Results: After intervention post test mean level of osteoarthritis and joint pain is reduced in group I as well as in the group II. The post-test mean score of experimental group I 22.13±3.78 was higher than that of experimental group II 13.53±2.28 and the calculated ‘t’ value 10.653 was significant at p<0.001 level. Conclusion: The study proved that the hot water application was effective than the Therapeutic exercise on reduction of joint pain and level of osteoarthritis among elderly in old age homes at Pondicherry.
