Do people with knee osteoarthritis use guideline-consistent treatments after an orthopaedic surgeon recommends nonsurgical care? A cross-sectional survey with long-term follow-up

D R Mazzei; J L Whittaker; A Kania-Richmond; P Faris; T Wasylak; J Robert; G Hawker; D A Marshall

doi:10.1016/j.ocarto.2022.100256

Do people with knee osteoarthritis use guideline-consistent treatments after an orthopaedic surgeon recommends nonsurgical care? A cross-sectional survey with long-term follow-up

Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2022 Mar 28;4(2):100256. doi: 10.1016/j.ocarto.2022.100256. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

D R Mazzei^{1

2

3}, J L Whittaker^{2

3

4}, A Kania-Richmond^{1

5}, P Faris^{1

5}, T Wasylak^{5

6}, J Robert⁵, G Hawker⁷, D A Marshall^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
² McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
³ Arthritis Research Canada, Canada.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁵ Strategic Clinical Networks, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁶ Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁷ Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: Describe "usual care" patterns of education, exercise, weight management, pain medication and other nonsurgical treatments for knee osteoarthritis (OA) in people recommended for nonsurgical care by an orthopaedic surgeon.

Methods: We used a telephone-administered questionnaire to capture treatments people with knee OA used over the three to six years after an orthopaedic surgeon recommended nonsurgical care. The primary outcome, guideline-consistent nonsurgical treatments, was an aggregate measure defined as using education, exercise, weight management, and at least one recommended medication. Secondary outcomes were first-line (education, exercise, and weight management) and guideline-inconsistent treatments (orthoses, opioids, hyaluronic acid, platelet rich plasma, and stem cell therapy). Multivariable robust Poisson regression assessed the association between participant characteristics and use of guideline-consistent, first-line and guideline-inconsistent treatments.

Results: 479 people were invited and 250 participated (52%). Participants were 58% female with a mean age 66.2 years. Participants received education by a healthcare professional (64%), exercised regularly (74%), used weight management (38%), and used recommended pain medications (91%). All guideline-consistent nonsurgical treatments were used by 19% of participants, 19% of participants used first-line treatments, and 42% used guideline-inconsistent treatments. Over six years, 34% had another consult then underwent arthroplasty. Older participants were less likely to use any treatment. People without post-secondary education were less likely to use first-line treatments (RR 0.54, 95% CI: 0.30-0.96), and females were less likely to use guideline-inconsistent treatments (RR 0.62, 95% CI:0.47-0.81).

Conclusions: Nonsurgical usual care for people with knee OA was not consistent with international clinical guidelines.

Keywords: CI, Confidence intervals; Exercise; Health education; Health services research; Knee; OA, Osteoarthritis; OARSI, Osteoarthritis Research Society International; Osteoarthritis; Practice guideline; RR, Relative risks; STROBE, Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology; TKR, Total knee replacement; Weight loss.