Osteoarthritis

Overview

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and affects millions of people worldwide. Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective tissues of our joints gradually break down over time. Although osteoarthritis can affect any joint, the disorder most commonly affects the hip and knee joints.

Osteoarthritis symptoms can usually be managed conservatively. Staying active, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and receiving certain treatments will slow the progression of the disease and help improve pain and joint function.

Symptoms

Osteoarthritis symptoms often develop slowly and worsen over time. Signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis include:

• Pain around or in the joint
• Joint stiffness upon awakening or after being inactive
• Tenderness around the joint
• Loss of flexibility in the joint
• Clicking or a grating sensation
• Swelling in the joint

Causes & Risk Factors

Osteoarthritis from the hip and knee can be caused by a wide variety of factors. Around 50% of people who suffer significant trauma to knee will go on to develop osteoarthritis 10 to 15 years later. This means a significant number of people who suffer from osteoarthritis are due to a gradual inflammatory process. While this process is not fully understood yet, we know that the below conditions increase your risk of developing hip and knee osteoarthritis.

• High blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• Significant hip or knee trauma in the past
• Muscles weakness
• Excess weight
• Physical inactivity

Severity

The severity of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee varies greatly from person to person. Often people will hear the phrase “bone on bone” from their x-ray report. However, severity cannot be determined on x-ray. This is because x-rays only measure the cartilage loss and do not provide any indication of the other affected tissues such as the joint capsule and surrounding musculature. This is an important distinction as osteoarthritis is now recognised as a whole joint disease. It is not uncommon for someone to have a “bone on bone” x-ray but be able to live a healthy and active lifestyle with minimal discomfort due to the other protective joint tissues.

Anatomy

Treatment

There are many treatment options available to manage and treat osteoarthritis of the hip and knee. Your first line treatment should consist of education and exercise by a qualified health professional. Physiotherapists are often the best placed to provide this in the primary care setting. Secondly, you can consider using pain medication, bracing, massage, and manual therapy to help reduce pain in the short term. Thirdly, you should consider surgery as a last resort as only a small percentage of people will undergo knee or hip surgery. Many people who have osteoarthritis will not require surgery in their lifetime.

Osteoarthritis Program

GLA:D®, Good Life with osteoArthritis: Denmark, is an education and exercise program that has been internationally adopted and is now being delivered in NZ thanks to Otago University. Developed by researchers in Denmark for people with hip or knee osteoarthritis symptoms it is seen as the gold standard for first line treatment around the world.

Research from the GLA:D® program in Australia shows an average pain reduction of 36%, reduced pain medication consumption, reduction in perceived need for surgery, and clinically meaningful improvement in joint confidence.

GLA:D® education and exercises provided can be applied to everyday activities, ensuring participants develop skills to self-manage their osteoarthritis. By strengthening and improving confidence with exercise, participants develop better capacity to improve activity levels, prevent symptom progression and reduce pain.

Link Health and Fitness is a GLA:D® provider. If you wish to learn more about the GLA:D® program visit our osteoarthritis program web page by clicking HERE.