Objective

Therapeutic education is an integral part of the management of knee osteoarthritis to acquire or to maintain skills allowing patients to manage their lives better. The aim of our study is to assess the contribution of therapeutic education in the management of knee osteoarthritis.

Material/Patients and methods

This is a randomized prospective study on patients with knee OA referred to the department of Physical Therapy of Mahdia since January 2016. Patients were divided into 3 groups. The first group G1 (10 patients) underwent physical rehabilitation, the second group G2 (10 patients) underwent therapeutic education and the third group G3 (10 patients) underwent therapeutic education and physical rehabilitation. The education program included definition of the disease, possible therapeutic means, hygieno-dietetic advices and self-rehabilitation exercises. Educational means used were an audiovisual system and an Arabic brochure distributed late in the session. The evaluation was performed at the beginning and at the end of the protocol. It had been about pain via the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), overall physical function with WOMAC, disability via the Lequesne index, mobility of the knee joint, and the psychological profile with HADscale.

Results

Thirty patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis (OA) were enrolled in this study; 5 men and 25 women whose age average was 58 years old. At the beginning of the protocol, the 3 groups were homogeneous in terms of all the parameters studied. At the end of the protocol, all parameters improved for all the groups. However, improvement was more important in G1 and G3. G3 had significantly greater values for VAS pain and Lequesne index than G3. There were no significant differences in WOMAC index, joint gain and HAD score between G1 and G3.

Discussion/Conclusion

Our study showed the short-term interests of therapeutic education associated with rehabilitation in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Our results should be confirmed in the long-term.