Patients' information needs to aid decision making on knee replacement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Partial or Total Knee Replacement? Patients’ information needs when deciding between surgery options to treat arthritis of the knee
IRAS ID
183325
Contact name
Stephanie Smith
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 6 days
Research summary
Shared decision-making is an approach where patients and their healthcare professionals share the best available evidence when faced with making decisions and patients are supported to make informed choices. Option Grids encourage shared decision-making, are one side of A4, list patients’ frequently-asked-questions, and provide evidence-based summaries to the questions. They are designed to prompt questions in the medical encounter.
Knee replacement is highly effective in the management of knee osteoarthritis when non-surgical therapies have failed. For a number of patients there is a choice between having a partial knee replacement (replace only the damaged half of the knee) or a total knee replacement (which replaces the whole knee joint). At present no specifically developed Option Grid regarding the choice of surgery to treat knee osteoarthritis exists to help patients.
The purpose of the study is to explore what matters most to patients having knee joint replacement to inform the development of an Option Grid on surgery options (partial and total knee replacements) to treat knee osteoarthritis. Four focus groups (three pre-surgery, one post-surgery) will be conducted with 6-8 other people in each group. Pre-surgery, there will be three age-groups 1) 18-59, 2) 60-80, 3) 81+. Post-surgery, one focus group will be conducted with the 60-80 age-group due to more patients in this age-group undergoing knee replacements. Areas of interest include, information needs, issues/concerns, and questions that are important to aid decision-making. Focus groups will be held at the hospital or university site. Other venues will be considered based on patient feedback at recruitment. The focus groups will be audio-recorded and transcribed word-for-word in preparation for Framework Analysis (Richie & Spencer, 1994). Common themes will be explored and the study aims to aid selecting frequently-asked-questions. The study is funded by the Academic Knee Surgery Research Programme, Botnar Research Centre, Oxford.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1257
Date of REC Opinion
20 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion