The role of patient's education in knee osteoarthritis management

Introduction/Background Therapeutic education is an integral part of the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA) to acquire or to maintain skills allowing patients to manage their lives better. The aim of our study is to assess the contribution of therapeutic education in the management of knee osteoarthritis. Material and method This is a randomized prospective study on patients with knee OA referred to the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation of Mahdia from January 2016 to Mars 2017. Patients were divided into 3 groups. The first group G1 (32 patients) underwent physical rehabilitation, the second group G2 (30 patients) underwent therapeutic education and the third group G3 (31 patients) underwent therapeutic education and physical rehabilitation. Assessments were performed before and after intervention (1, 3 and 12 months). Evaluation parameters were: pain with the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), overall physical function with WOMAC score, disability with the Lequesne index, mobility of the knee joint, and the psychological profile with the HAD scale. Health-related quality of life was also assessed using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Results Ninety-three patients diagnosed with knee OA were enrolled in this study. The mean age was 58 years old. At the beginning of the protocol, the 3 groups were homogeneous in terms of all the parameters studied. At the end of protocol, we noticed a decrease in pain and an improvement in joint mobility in the three groups with a better improvement in G3. The physical function, psychological profile and quality of life also improved after the end of the protocol in the three groups, especially G3. This improvement persisted at 3 months and at 1 year of follow-up. Conclusion Our study showed the short- and long-term interests of therapeutic education associated with rehabilitation in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.