Better strategies needed to improve osteoarthritis treatment

People with osteoarthritis do not particularly benefit any more with combined patient and provider intervention than they do with usual care, says new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

We already know that management of osteoarthritis requires both medical and behavioral strategies, but some recommended therapies are underused. So a team looked at how well a combined patient and provider intervention works in terms of improving osteoarthritis outcomes.

They looked at data from 30 providers and 300 people with hip or knee osteoarthritis, and assessed if patient-based, provider-based and patient-provider interventions improved osteoarthritis.

The telephone-based patient intervention focused on weight management, physical activity and cognitive behavioral pain management.

The provider intervention involved delivery of patient-specific osteoarthritis treatment recommendations to primary care providers through the electronic medical record.

“The combined patient and provider intervention resulted in modest improvement in self-reported physical function in patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis,” the researchers say. “The overall effects in the VAMC study were modest, suggesting that for at least some patients, more intensive interventions may be needed to produce meaningful, sustained changes in osteoarthritis management and outcomes. Automated e-health interventions are a potential strategy for increasing intervention intensity in a scalable manner.”

Click here to read the original research.

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