SAT0728-HPR Evaluation of the effectiveness of an educational program in patients with osteoarthritis of the knees

Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic joint disease, affecting about 50% of the population aged 65 or over, its incidence tends to increase according to the age. Educational intervention is considered an important part of treatments for chronic diseases. However, in the literature, for OA there is still no standard of educational program to be followed. Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of the educational intervention in patients with knee osteoarthritis regarding to pain, function, anxiety and quality of life Methods Sixty patients with knee OA, both genders and age between 40 to 80 years, were included. The patients were randomised into 2 groups: Experimental Group (EG) received an educational intervention, composed of 5 consecutive sessions held once a week, with a duration of 60 min each session. At the end of the last class, a booklet was given to each patient with all the content of the classes. In addition to the educational program, this EG also received a TENS (Transcutaneous Nerve Electrical Stimulation) treatment performed twice a week for 5 weeks for 40 min each session. Control group (CG) received the same TENS treatment as EG group. The evaluations were performed at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks after baseline with the following instruments: numerical pain scale (NPS) for pain; WOMAC questionnaire and 6 min walk test for function; IDATE questionnaire for anxiety and SF-36 questionnaire for quality of life. Results Regarding the variables pain, function, anxiety and quality of life, no statistically significant difference was found between groups over time. (table 1) The intragroup comparisons show na improvement in both groups between T0 and T4 and T0 and T12for: pain; function total and pain score of WOMAC and domains physical role functioning and social role functioning of SF-36 (table 1) Conclusions This educational intervention was not effective in improving pain, function, anxiety and quality of life in patients with osteoarthritis of the knees. References [1] Barlow J, Turner A, Swaby L, et al. An 8-yr follow-up of Arthritis Self-Management Programme participants. Rheumatology2009;48:128–33. [2] Fernandes L, Hagen KB, Bijlsma JWJ, et al. EULAR recommendations for the non-pharmacological core management of hip and knee osteoarthritis. Ann Rheum DisPublished Online First. Published on April 17, 2013as 10.1136/annrheumdis-2012–202745 Disclosure of Interest None declared