Patient and Provider Interventions for Managing Osteoarthritis in Primary Care

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic conditions and a leading cause of pain and disability among adults. Many adults with OA have significant pain and functional limitations, even though they receive some medical care for their OA. Efforts are needed to help adults improve OA-related outcomes. This study will examine three different approaches for helping adults manage their OA-related symptoms. The study will compare a patient-based intervention (involving exercise, weight management, and cognitive behavioral pain management), a provider-based intervention (involving provision of patient-specific recommendations for care, based on evidence-based guidelines), and a combination of the two interventions, relative to usual care among patients with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis. The interventions are relatively low cost and easy to disseminate, with the patient component being telephone based. This study will provide novel, valuable information of the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of these three interventions in the context of real-world clinical settings.