Influence of Osteoarthritis Information on Treatment Beliefs

Overview

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of educational information, with and without a general practitioner recommendation to exercise, on willingness to undertake exercise/physical activity for knee osteoarthritis. Eligible participants will be aged 45+ years and will not currently have osteoarthritis, knee pain, or any condition that makes them unable to exercise. Participants will be asked to complete an online survey, during which they will be randomised to one of three groups and shown different types of educational information to read. Outcome measures will be collected as part of the survey before and after participants read the educational information presented to them.

3-arm superiority online randomised controlled trial (delivered within one survey). Participants will complete an online survey, during which they will be presented with a hypothetical scenario asking them to imagine that they had recently developed knee pain and have gone to see their general practitioner. Participants will then be randomised to one of 3 different groups (described below). Each group will be shown different types of educational material and asked to read the information carefully. Once they have finished reading the material, they will be asked to complete follow-up outcome measures to determine whether their beliefs about osteoarthritis management strategies have changed. The 3 trial groups are: I. Control group: asked to read a single-A4 page of brief osteoarthritis information ("what is osteoarthritis"); II. Treatment options group: asked to read brief osteoarthritis information + two A4 pages of information on treatment options ("osteoarthritis treatment options"), and; III. Treatment options + recommendation group: asked to read brief osteoarthritis information + information on treatment options + receive a hypothetical GP recommendation for exercise