Context effect have been shown to be influential in health-care settings, such as hospitals. This study investigates if context effects can be caused by the physical surroundings of exercise.~The study is designed as a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial. Patients with knee and/or hip pain with a duration of a least 3 months are included in the trial and randomly assigned to 3 groups.~Exercise in pre-existing, standard room~Exercise in contextually enhanced room.~Waiting list.~The intervention consists markedly different between the two exercise rooms. The physical surroundings are described by factors such as acoustics, light source and intensity, decorations and air quality.~The exercise program applied is based on a previously investigated neuromuscular exercise program, NEMEX. The same program is performed in both exercise rooms. Consequently, only the physical surroundings differ between intervention groups.~Patients' global perceived effect is used as the primary outcome assessed at 8 weeks follow-up.
The study is designed to investigate the effect of physical surroundings on the effect of exercise therapy for knee and hip pain.