Knee Osteoarthritis
Education and Self Management for Knee Osteoarthritis
Education and self-management forms a crucial part of the core recommended treatments for people with knee osteoarthritis. Education and self-management should be provided to all people with knee osteoarthritis alongside exercise and weight management.
What is Self-Management?
Self-management is defined as the tasks that individuals must undertake to live well with one or more chronic conditions. These tasks include having the confidence to deal with medical management, role management, and emotional management of their conditions.
To effectively self-manage a condition, people need to learn about their condition and the best ways to overcome barriers and obstacles that the condition creates. Therefore, some people with knee osteoarthritis can use information from this website, or seek assistance from a health professional (for example your doctor or physiotherapist) to help them improve their own strategies in managing their condition. Self-management does not mean that you are on your own! It means that you have been empowered with the education to help to keep your symptoms at bay. Learning how to do this is a continuous process that is shared by you, your family, healthcare team and other people with osteoarthritis.
Self-management includes things like healthy eating (see weight management), exercise and getting a good night’s sleep in order to improve the quality of your day-to-day life.
How can I identify what I need to know or learn?
This is an individual question and it takes a little thought from yourself (reflection) and maybe a little guidance from a health professional.
To help structure your thoughts we recommend creating your own guide using “My Joint Guide”. At the start of all guides we have a reflection exercise for you to think about how you have managed your condition to date and also identify what you want to find out more about. This may help you when you next go see your health professional (for example a doctor or a physiotherapist).
What are the best ways to manage symptoms if I have a flare-up?
A ‘flare-up’ means that you are experiencing a temporary increase in your knee osteoarthritis symptoms (for example pain or stiffness). The good news is that symptom flare-ups usually improve quickly and are not normally associated with doing any ‘damage’ to your knee joint.
Flare-ups of symptoms are a normal part of osteoarthritis. Luckily, these episodes are usually only short lived and nothing serious.
Why did it happen? It may have been something specific (e.g., tried a new activity, did more walking than usual) or it could be for an unknown reason. Either way, follow these simple steps that you can take to manage your flare-up and assist you to return to normal functional level.
What should I do?
1. Don’t panic.
People can worry that they have created new ‘damage’ to their knees, however as you know from the ‘understanding osteoarthritis‘ pages, pain does not always equal damage.
If there has not been any recent excessive trauma to the knee then it is most likely that you have just pushed your knee movements in a different way, or slightly more than normal.
Being worried, anxious, or stressed is known to increase the amount of pain someone feels, therefore it’s really important to remain calm and optimally manage your flare up.
2. Consider methods to reduce your pain in the short term.
There are a number of ways you can try to reduce your knee pain levels.
a. As mentioned in the previous section – stay calm – it is unlikely that you will have created damage to your knee.
b. Try to modify your activity temporarily – for example if you have just walked to your local shops, consider stopping temporarily to rest, or consider other transport options to help you get home and reduce the amount that you have to continue to walk.
c. Use heat or ice – this can be a useful way to control your pain without using medications. People often ask which is better – heat or ice? However, either heat or ice can be useful and it is a personal preference as to which is best. Regardless of which you choose, ensure that there is a barrier between the hot/cold pack and the skin and avoid heating/cooling for longer than 10 minutes every 2 hours. Also – make sure that you monitor the area that you are applying the hot/cold pack to, to ensure that you are not causing any irritation to the skin or burns.
d. Consider temporarily taking pain medications that you have previously been prescribed, or visit your Doctor/Pharmacist for further advise to help you get through the flare up period. Remember that medications are the second level of the treatment pyramid and that you can move up AND down the pyramid. Therefore, when the pain has settled you will likely be able to reduce their intake/return to your normal levels.
e. If you still need further help then you could consider seeking further help from a physiotherapist. They may be able to provide guidance specific to your situation or offer assistive devices or treatments to help control your symptoms and get you back to doing the things you were doing.
3. Use your knee as much as is comfortable.
It’s important to not completely stop using your knee/leg. Consider temporarily modifying your activity to reduce symptoms.
For example if you have just walked to your local shops, consider stopping temporarily to rest, or consider other transport options to help you get home and reduce the amount that you have to continue to walk.
4. Learn from the episode and plan.
See if you can understand why you got a flare-up? Was it just because you used your leg much more than normal? If so, consider how you can gradually build yourself up to be able to tolerate the activity in the future by setting small progressive goals.
If your symptoms do not appear to be improving with any of the advice above then seek advice from your doctor.
Patient Expert Advice on Managing Symptoms of Knee Osteoarthritis
Listen to Matthew’s experience of being diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis.
Listen to Matthew’s experience of modifying activities for knee osteoarthritis.
IRISH RESOURCES FOR EDUCATION AND SELF-MANAGEMENT
Apart from exploring all of the information on jointpain.ie, there are some additional education and self-management programmes for osteoarthritis available in Ireland.
The GLA:D Ireland programme (Good Life with osteoArthritis Denmark) is an example of a group exercise and education programme for hip and knee osteoarthritis that is led by physiotherapists and available in healthcare and community settings all around Ireland (and the world). The programme includes two hour-long sessions dedicated to education about osteoarthritis.
Click here to see where GLA:D is available and how to get referred.
The Arthritis Ireland “Living Well with Arthritis” course is led by trained leaders, who either have the condition themselves or are healthcare professionals. It consists of six weekly sessions, each 2.5 hours long, and is offered free of charge. Each group has about 18 participants and is delivered both online and within the community.
Click here for more information.
Other resources can be found here.