Behaviours and Attitudes to Joint Issues and Osteoarthritis †
School of Sports, Exercise and Nutrition, Massey University, Auckland 4442, New Zealand
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand, Napier, New Zealand, 28–29 November 2019.
Proceedings 2019, 37(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019037046
Published: 20 January 2020
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of 2019 Annual Meeting of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand)
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major cause of disability worldwide and in New Zealand, and a huge burden on the individual and society. To date effective early diagnosis, prevention and treatment strategies are lacking. This study examined behaviours and attitudes towards joint issues and OA.
Using a composite score from the KOOS (Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score) questionnaire, 183 participants with increased joint issues (scoring in the bottom 2 quartiles) were identified from the REACH study cohort (n = 367). These participants were sent a questionnaire on behaviours and attitudes regarding joint issues and OA. Associations between patterns of behavior and attitudes were analysed in the 95 participants (58 females; 37 males) who completed the questionnaire.
Most (87%) participants experienced joint pain and all experienced one or more joint symptoms even though half (n = 48) had no OA diagnosis. Those without a medical diagnosis were significantly more likely to experience little/no pain and little/no impact on lifestyle than those diagnosed (χ2 = 8.98, p = 0.003; χ2 = 16.3, p = 0.001 respectively). Increased pain and impact on lifestyle were associated with increased pain relief intake (χ2 = 14.3, p = 0.001; χ2 = 15.4, p = 0.001 respectively). Taking supplements and homeopathic remedies were not significantly associated with OA diagnosis, pain or impact on lifestyle. Exercise was the most common therapy (81% participants) and most had a positive attitude towards all treatments experienced. The majority however hadn’t tried a variety of treatments with the attitude that joint issues are “just part of getting old” being the most common barrier (47%).
Joint symptoms are prevalent even without OA diagnosis and there is reliance on pharmaceutical management of OA and a lack of knowledge and positive attitudes toward alternative treatment strategies. This highlights the need for the development of early diagnosis techniques, improved management methods and treatments for OA.
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Slade, C.; Beck, K.; Conlon, C.; Hurst, P.v. Behaviours and Attitudes to Joint Issues and Osteoarthritis. Proceedings 2019, 37, 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019037046
AMA Style
Slade C, Beck K, Conlon C, Hurst Pv. Behaviours and Attitudes to Joint Issues and Osteoarthritis. Proceedings. 2019; 37(1):46. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019037046
Chicago/Turabian StyleSlade, Cassandra, Kathryn Beck, Cathryn Conlon, and Pamela von Hurst. 2019. "Behaviours and Attitudes to Joint Issues and Osteoarthritis" Proceedings 37, no. 1: 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019037046
