2Ankara Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon ANKARA
3Dicle Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı DİYARBAKIR Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of patient education, factors affecting the education, compliance of patients to exercises and the reasons of nonconformity among elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Materials and Method: During the initial assessments of 482 patients with knee OA, information was provided about the disease, and the benefits of exercises were explained and individual exercise programs were designed. After three months, pharmacological treatments and compliance to exercises and the reasons of failure to comply were questioned. Pain levels were measured with Visual Analog Scale (VAS).
Results: 60.2% of the patients were found to be not complying with their exercise programs. Rates of literacy and speaking the same language with the doctor among these patients were significantly lower than the group complying with their exercises but the mean age was higher. The most common reasons for not doing the exercises were finding them tiring and boring, doubting their effectiveness and being older. The initial VAS values of both groups were similar, however the control VAS values of the compliant group were significantly lower.
Conclusion: Informing the patients with knee osteoarthritis about the significance of management and exercises is of importance for the success of the treatment. In this study, the patient's education level, speaking the same language and factors affecting communication such as hearing loss have emerged as the most important parameters that convince the patients to implement exercises.
Keywords : Osteoarthritis; Exercise; Patient Education as Topic; Aged