Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives: Osteoarthritis is considered as the most common chronic disease and cause of disability in the elderly. Self-management can be appropriate to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis as one of the most suitable approaches in people with chronic diseases. This study aimed to determine the effect of self-management education program on disability of elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis referring to the elderly care clinic of Imam Reza (AS) treatment center in Shiraz.

Material & Methods: Firstly, an on hand sampling was done in this quasi-experimental study on elderly patients with osteoarthritis of knee. Then they were randomly divided into two groups: intervention (41 patients) and control groups (41 cases). The questionnaire contained demographic information and WOMAK tool was used to determine the severity of disability, which was performed at before, immediately after, and eight weeks after the intervention for both groups. The intervention was consisted of six sessions of group education in self-management included information about the disease and treatment, medication management, symptom management, management of psychosocial consequences, lifestyle (including exercise), social support and so on. The control group received usual care. Data was analyzed using the SPSS20 and descriptive-analytical tests (the significance level was α = 0/05).

Results: The two groups were matched in the case of age, sex, education level, marital status, disease severity, body mass index, and earnings based on chi-square tests and independent t-test (p> 0.5). Before the intervention, there was no significant difference in the mean score of disability between the intervention and control groups (p= 0.55). However, the mean score of disability was significantly less in the case group rather than the control one, after the intervention (22.76±14.71 vs. 42.50±17.43) (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: The performance of self-management program can be useful in reducing morbidity of patients with knee osteoarthritis. Therefore, it can be used as an effective empowering method.