Presence and absence of mechanical symptoms at follow-ups for the subgroup of patients with mechanical symptoms at baseline (n=63)
| 3-month follow-up | 6-month follow-up | 12-month follow-up | ||||
| Exercise therapy n=23 | Meniscal surgery n=25 | Exercise therapy n=23 | Meniscal surgery n=16 | Exercise therapy n=29 | Meniscal surgery n=26 | |
| Presence of mechanical symptoms, no.(%) | 15 (65) | 9 (36) | 14 (61) | 3 (19) | 20 (69) | 9 (35) |
| Absence of mechanical symptoms, no.(%) | 8 (35) | 16 (64) | 9 (39) | 13 (81) | 9 (31) | 17 (65) |
| Relative risk (95% CI) | 1.83 (0.98 to 2.70)* | |||||
| Risk difference (95% CI) | 28.7 (8.60 to 48.8)* | |||||
Results are expressed as numbers (no.) and percentage (%) of patients with and without mechanical symptoms at 3, 6 and 12 months of follow-up. At baseline, there were 33 and 30 patients with mechanical symptoms for the meniscal surgery group and the supervised exercise therapy group, respectively.
Further, the relative risk and the risk difference with 95% CI for having mechanical symptoms after 12 months of follow-up are giving in the table. The surgery group was considered the reference and thus a risk difference greater than 0 or a risk ratio greater than one denote an increased risk for mechanical symptoms in the supervised exercise therapy group.
*Adjusted for sex.