 Statistical analysis
KOA
 The data were analyzed using Statistic Product for Statistical Solutions (SPSS), version 25.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, USA). The intention-to-treat principle was applied where computerized multiple imputation methods handled missing data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the baseline sociodemographic (age, gender, body mass index, and duration of KOA) and clinical outcome characteristics of the participants. For baseline comparability analysis, the one-way analysis of variance was applied to examine the effects of these factors as dependent variables. Further, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to evaluate pre-post intervention differences in the KOOS, VAS, and TUG scores between the two groups. All statistical significances were set at 