Healthcare professionals: How to explain osteoarthritis well
24 January 2024
Article written by Clare Jinks, Professor of Health Research
Research studies show that if people with osteoarthritis (OA) hold the belief that their condition is just part of normal ageing, and/or simply wear and tear, this is a barrier to them engaging in self-management, such as exercise.
To counter this, researchers at Keele University have worked with people with osteoarthritis to co-design new evidence-based resources to explain osteoarthritis.
The resources are freely available for all healthcare professionals to use and include an animation and a written leaflet.
The resources encourage self-management of symptoms using exercise, increasing activity and weight loss (if needed).
Find out more about the development of the new resources
The animation and leaflet can be used in conversations, consultations or signposted to using hyperlinks or QR codes.
They can help healthcare professionals with shared decision-making conversations and support treatment packages that are recommended in clinical guidelines, as provision of good quality information is a core treatment for osteoarthritis.
The animation and leaflet are credible resources as they have been generated through high quality research and a rigorous co-design process with people with osteoarthritis and have been informed by behaviour change theory.
The research identified what people with osteoarthritis want and need to know in an osteoarthritis explanation to help them self-manage their condition.
Nearly 2000 people were sent a survey to identify their preferred content for an osteoarthritis explanation.
The options for explanations in the survey had been crafted by healthcare professionals and patients in workshops, with a focus on statements which were deemed important to promote self-management.
A patient advisory group developed a story board for the animation with the survey results. The reading age of the text in the leaflet was also checked to make it accessible to as many people as possible (13–15-year-old reading age).
You can use the freely available resources in any way that is relevant to you (to click on in consultations, to put into referral letters or use alongside other patient information)
Feedback
The team is keen to get feedback from people who use the resources to improve them in the future.
Please share your stories about how the resources are being used in clinical practice. You can email your news to Professor Clare Jinks using email: c.jinks@keele.ac.uk or health.iau@keele.ac.uk
This study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit Programme and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands.