Effects of Exercise Self-Management Program on Disease Severity Among Adults with Knee Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis is a major public health problem which is more common in adults aged 35 years and over. The risk of developing the disease and the degree of severity increases with age, and it can affect physical health, mental health, and quality of life. The mainstays of care are to prevent complications and to reduce disease severity. It is necessary for adults with knee osteoarthritis to follow proper self-management, to exercise regularly and to reduce the disease severity. Appropriate exercise self-management will delay disease progression and reduce disease severity among adults with knee osteoarthritis.

This quasi-experimental research, one group pretest–posttest design aimed to study the effect of the exercise self-management program on disease severity among adult persons with knee osteoarthritis in community. The participants were 30 women, aged 35-59 years, who had done screening and were diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis lived in the community, Chiang Mai province. Screened participants were selected through a simple random sampling method. Data collection was conducted from March to May 2019.  The research instruments were demographic questionnaire. The content validity index of the questionnaires was 0.83 and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for reliability was 0.90. The experimental instruments were developed by researcher including; an exercise self-management program for adults with knee osteoarthritis which consisted of the exercise self-management program, teaching plan, computer media, a practice manual, and a QR code offering the contents of the practice manual in electronic format. The instruments were approved by six experts. The content validity index of the instruments was 0.83. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis, and the Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the severity level of disease before and after implementing the program.

The research findings revealed that participants were at a moderate level of disease severity x̄=2.13, SD=0.34) before the program and at a low level x̄=1.26, SD=0.45) after the program. After participating in the program, participants showed a statistically significant lower level of disease severity (p<0.05). The effect of the program can enhance adults with knee osteoarthritis skills and techniques in regular knee exercise to reduce the disease severity. This study will be beneficial to community nurses and health care teams to use as guidelines to provide health care services more effectively for adults with knee osteoarthritis in the community context.