Factors That Influence Your Understanding Of Osteoarthritis
Most Patients Do Not Fully Understand Their Osteoarthritis:
Research has shown that most patient’s understanding of Osteoarthritis differs from the medical model of Osteoarthritis. This incongruity between a patient’s understanding of OA and the medical model will likely result in less successful treatment outcomes and a lower quality of life.
Critical Factors That Influence A Patient’s Understanding of Osteoarthritis:
There are multiple factors that are important to improve a patient’s understanding of their disease and improve outcomes including:
-Interactions and discussion between the physician and the patient
-Whether or not a patient’s understanding of OA is similar to the medical model of OA
-Patient compliance or noncompliance with physician-prescribed treatments
Research has shown that there are four components that affect a patients understanding of Osteoarthritis.
1. A patient’s personal experiences with an illness
2. Cultural influences
3. Learned knowledge of an illness
4. Discussions with friends and family and other social interactions contribute to the patient’s understanding of that illness
Discussions and interactions that occur between the physician and the patient ultimately affect the similarity between the patient’s understanding of their disease and the physician’s model or the medical model of OA.
Research On The Benefits Of Improved Patient Understanding:
Research has shown that the benefit of similar patient and physician models results in increased patient compliance with physician-prescribed treatments. In previous studies, which examined the relationship between patient compliance and treatment outcomes, increased patient compliance to physician-prescribed treatments was found to result in improved treatment outcomes and a better quality of life for the patient. In contrast, noncompliance with physician-prescribed treatments has been demonstrated to result in less than ideal treatment outcomes and has been less successful in improving a patient’s quality of life.
Specifically regarding OA, the elimination of pain and restoring limited function is an ideal positive treatment outcome. Previous studies of various types of arthritis, including OA, indicate that a large percentage of OA patients experience depression as a result of the limitations that OA places on their ability to participate in activities of daily living. A patient’s quality of life may therefore be improved upon simply by enabling the patient to enjoy painless joint function, thereby providing the patient with the means to participate in desired activities.
Educating patients with OA on their disease and treatment is critical to their health care because communication between the individual and their doctor is essential to effective management. Educating a patient by increasing the patient’s understanding of the disease may increase his adherence to treatments prescribed by his health care providers, which may result in time saved, relief of symptoms, minimizing the risk of progression, and improving the overall quality of life.
Patient Misunderstanding in Osteoarthritis
Patient Misunderstanding in Arthritis
Do Cultural Differences Matter in How Osteoarthritis Will Affect Me?
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