The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has just published their second edition of this guideline to to present the best available evidence for managing OA other than joint replacement surgery. It’s a great summary of best available non-operative care.
Optimal management of OA was one of our objectives when creating a digital, automated PROMs collection tool. This guideline describes their role in holistic assessment –
“The use of patient-reported measures, inclusive of outcomes and experience, is an important beginning of, and component of, holistic assessment of individuals with hip and/or knee OA. These measures capture a patients’ perspective about how their OA impacts on their life, health and wellbeing, and their experience in receiving care. Patient-reported measures are important tools used during the clinical consultation and in multidisciplinary team discussions to contribute to shared clinical decision making and patient-centred care.”
Regular monitoring with clinical assessment, PROMs and functional measures is also recommended –
A few commonly used instruments for assessing self-reported pain and function include:
- Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS)
- Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for Pain
- Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) questionnaire
- Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)
- Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS).
In addition, the 30-second chair-stand test, 40-metre fast-paced walk test, stair-climb test, timed up-and-go test, and six-minute walk test were recommended as complementary tests to patient report measures. (Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) advisory group)
Myscoreit includes KOOS and HAGOS ( which has utility in higher functioning individuals that is validated for use in hip conditions such as OA, in addition to groin-related pathology).
