A multidisciplinary and multidimensional intervention for patients with hand osteoarthritis

Background: Although several guidelines recommend that treatment programmes in patients with hand osteoarthritis should be both multidisciplinary and multidimensional, currently no such treatment programme for hand osteoarthritis has been described. Therefore the aim of this study was to systematically develop a multidisciplinary and multidimensional non-pharmacological treatment programme and to give a detailed description on the content of this treatment programme.Development of the treatment programme: The programme was developed in phases. In a preclinical theoretical phase, disease-specific problems, current evidence and the influence of patient characteristics on the benefit of interventions were explored. In a modelling phase, the treatment programme was designed.Treatment programme: The programme contains an individual intake, four weekly nurse and occupational therapist-led group sessions and a booster session after six months. Treatment components of the programme are self-management, daily home...