None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the 12th highest contributor to global disability. It typically involves the hip and knee causing joint pain that leads to impaired function and reduced quality of life. There is no cure for OA and treatment focuses on long-term self-management of pain with exercise and weight loss (if overweight). But, people with OA are dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of information provided to them about their condition and do not feel equipped to self-manage successfully. We are conducting a randomised controlled trial to evaluate whether a Massive Open Online course about OA and its management may be a scalable solution to improve people with hip and/or knee OA’s knowledge of the condition and their confidence to manage their joint pain, compared with OA education that is currently available online. The primary outcomes under investigation are OA knowledge and pain self-efficacy. Participants will be randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups; i) Consumer-focused Massive Open Online Course (Experimental intervention) ii) OA information pamphlet (Control intervention) Primary and secondary outcomes will be collected by web-based survey at baseline (if applicable), 5 weeks post randomisation (primary) and 13 weeks post randomisation (secondary).
Interventions
In this two-arm, parallel-design, superiority, randomised controlled trial, participants randomised to the intervention group will receive access to a 4-module consumer-focused Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about osteoarthritis (OA) and its management.
After randomisation, participants will receive an email from the research team, which contains details of how to access the course online. Participants will be asked to access the course at home, on their own device and complete module 1 wit
In this two-arm, parallel-design, superiority, randomised controlled trial, participants randomised to the intervention group will receive access to a 4-module consumer-focused Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about osteoarthritis (OA) and its management. After randomisation, participants will receive an email from the research team, which contains details of how to access the course online. Participants will be asked to access the course at home, on their own device and complete module 1 within 7 days of enrolling in the course. Thereafter, they will be encouraged to complete 1 module per week and will be given 5 weeks to complete all 4 modules. The consumer-focused MOOC contains educational information about OA and its management that aligns with best evidence/clinical guideline recommendations for hip/knee OA. The course information is presented in four modules using written text, videos, infographics, downloadable resources (including physical activity/exercise logbook and action plan templates) and learning activities. The course does not prescribe specific exercise. In total, the time required to complete all four modules and learning activities is approximately four hours (one hour per module). The course was designed for this study. To monitor adherence, participants will be asked to self-report, at the 5-week timepoint, which course modules they have completed.
Sponsors
The University of Melbourne
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
45 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
i. live in Australia; ii. have an unreplaced (native) hip or knee joint that meets the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical criteria for OA: - aged 45 years or over; - activity-related pain at the joint; - joint morning stiffness that lasts less than or equal to 30 mins or no morning stiffness at the joint iii. history of pain for at least 3 months at the joint; and iv. joint pain on most days of the past month; v. have access to a computer with internet connection and an email address; and vi. able to give informed consent and willing to commit to all study evaluation and assessment procedures.
Exclusion criteria
i. self-reported systemic arthritis (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, gout); ii. scheduled for lower limb joint surgery in the next 13 weeks; iii. completed an online educational course about OA that involved at least 2 hours of learning in total in the past 12 months; and/or iv. unable to easily read and understand English.
Outcome results
None listed