Facing the decision about the treatment of hip or knee osteoarthritis: What are patients’ needs?

There is an increasing interest in modern orthopaedic practice to empower patients to participate in shared decision-making. Decision aids are thought to be helpful in this process. Before creating decision aids for patients with osteoarthritis in the knee or hip, the goal was to identify the needs of patients and physicians when deciding about the treatment. Specifically, this study tested the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in decisional conflict between patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis and orthopaedic surgeons.

Thirty-three orthopaedic surgeons and 172 patients with either knee or hip osteoarthritis were surveyed. Patients entered their demographic information and completed the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score/Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, the Assessment of Needs survey based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework, the Decisional Conflict Scale, the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the Patient–Doctor Relationship Questionnaire-9, the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire. Physicians entered their demographic and professional information and completed the Assessment of Needs survey based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework and the Decisional Conflict Scale.

Patients had a higher magnitude of decisional conflict than physicians and that the level of decisional conflict was positively influenced by the patient–doctor relationship. Patients had high needs regarding information and clearness of one’s values for risks and benefits.

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