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  • Prevalence of self-reported knee symptoms and management strategies among elderly individuals from Frederiksberg municipality: protocol for a prospective and pragmatic Danish cohort study

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Public health
Protocol
Prevalence of self-reported knee symptoms and management strategies among elderly individuals from Frederiksberg municipality: protocol for a prospective and pragmatic Danish cohort study
  1. Elisabeth Marie Ginnerup-Nielsen1,
  2. Marius Henriksen1,2,
  3. Robin Christensen1,3,
  4. Berit Lilienthal Heitmann1,4,
  5. Roy Altman5,
  6. Lyn March6,
  7. Anthony Woolf7,
  8. Hanne Karlsen1,
  9. Henning Bliddal1
  1. 1 The Parker Institute, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
  2. 2 Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg-Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark
  3. 3 Department of Rheumatology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark
  4. 4 Department of Public Health, Section for General Practice, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
  5. 5 Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
  6. 6 Department of Rheumatology, Institute of Bone and Joint Research, University of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  7. 7 Bone and Joint Research Group, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Henning Bliddal; Henning.Bliddal{at}regionh.dk

Abstract

Introduction The Global Burden of Disease 2010 study ranked osteoarthritis (OA) as a leading cause of years lived with disability. With an ageing population, increasing body weight and sedentary lifestyle, a substantial increase especially in knee OA (KOA) is expected. Management strategies for KOA include non-pharmacological, pharmacological and surgical interventions. Meanwhile, over-the-counter pain medications have been discredited as they are associated with several risks with long-term usage. By consequence, the use of exercise and all sorts of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for joint pain has increased. The available self-management strategies are plenty, but there is no overview of their use at a population level and whether they are used along with doctors’ prescriptions or replace these. The aim of this study is to estimate the population incidence of developing knee symptoms and analyse the association between (and impact of) the use of self-reported preventive measures and knee symptoms.

Methods and analysis This prospective cohort study pragmatically recruits individuals from the municipality of Frederiksberg, Denmark. All citizens aged 60–69 years old will be contacted annually for 10 years and asked to participate in a web-based survey. The major outcomes are self-reported knee symptoms and their association with use of various management strategies, including use of non-pharmacological treatments and CAM. Secondary outcomes include the influence of treatments on use of healthcare system and surgical procedures. Descriptive and analytic statistics (eg, logistic regression) will be used to provide summaries about the sample and observations made and the associations between self-management and development of knee symptoms.

Ethics and dissemination This study can be implemented without permission from the Health Research Ethics Committee. Permission has been obtained from the Danish Data Protection Agency. Study findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and presented at relevant conferences.

Trial registration number NCT03472300.

  • osteoarthritis
  • knee
  • complementary therapies
  • surveys and questionnaires
  • chronic pain

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028087

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors HB has conceived the study and is the grant holder. EMG-N, BLH, RC and MH have provided expertise in planning of surveys and studies involving patients with knee osteoarthritis. LM, AW, RA and HK have, in line with the other authors, contributed to the refinement of the study protocol and approved the current version.

    • Funding This work was supported by Ellen Mørchs Foundation (grant number: 324962019). The Parker Institute, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital is supported by a core grant from the Oak Foundation (OCAY-13-309).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval The Regional Health Research Ethics Committee of the Capital Region of Denmark has reviewed the outline of this cohort study. The committee has accepted the study as exempt from approval (reference no: 17024697) as this study is only based on questionnaires. Such studies can be implemented without permission from the Health Research Ethics Committee according to Danish legislation (Committee Act § 1, paragraph 1). However, we will conduct the study with the highest research ethics standards possible.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.