5 Questions Patients Ask Post Osteoarthritis Diagnosis

Patients and healthcare providers sometimes have different concerns when an osteoarthritis diagnosis is made for the first time, shows a study.Researchers writing in Arthritis Care & Research last year, report that the questions patients ask differ from the questions doctors want them to ask. The study is based on a questionnaire completed by 94 patients and 122 healthcare providers. Led by Cornelia H. M. van den Ende, Ph.D., of Sint Maartenskliniek and Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands, they found that healthcare providers and patients sometimes prioritize different issues.“Patients consider questions oriented toward treatment options offered by healthcare professionals important, whereas frequently asked questions that are highly prioritized by health care professionals are more directed toward self-management. These differences are important to address in order to achieve more active involvement of patients in their own treatment process,” the authors wrote.In this slideshow, we compare the most important questions of patients to those of healthcare providers.---Related:  "Doctor-Patient Communication, a 'Thorny’ Challenge"REFERENCEClaassen A, Kremers-van de Hei K, van den Hoover F, et al. “Most Important Frequently Asked Questions from Patients With Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis: A Best-Worst Scaling Exercise.” Arthritis Care & Research (2019), doi: 10.1002/acr.23719