"Holding me back": living with arthritis while recovering from stroke

A synthesis of qualitative research to understand the complexity behind treatment decision-making for osteoarthritis

Objective

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease with treatment involving a multidisciplinary approach with pharmacological, physical therapies and surgery as options. Qualitative research can help us to understand the complexity of managing health conditions and this understanding plays a role in good clinical practice. We aimed to systematically search for, identify, and synthesise qualitative research exploring the experience of living with osteoarthritis, including decision making about joint replacement.

Methods

We comprehensively searched 4 bibliographic databases and used the methods of meta-ethnography to synthesise qualitative research findings. We screened 10 ​123 titles, 548 abstracts, and 139 full texts. We included findings from 118 reports (105 unique samples) of at least 2534 adults living with osteoarthritis around the world.

Results

We developed 7 themes: Becoming your own expert can be hard work; Living has become a careful balancing act; Medication is a double-edged sword; I have other things in my life to consider; You have to weigh up the odds of surgery; Surgery is the only effective option; and Surgery will give me a chance to live now. These findings have been drawn into a conceptual model reflecting a complex balancing act with tensions underpinning treatment decision making.

Conclusions

Osteoarthritis is framed as a world where patients become their own expert about their management and healthcare choices. Our conceptual model highlights key tensions underpinning treatment decision-making. These findings provide clinicians with insight of the complex nature of these decisions and how they can help patients through shared decision making.

A qualitative evidence synthesis using meta-ethnography to understand the experience of living with osteoarthritis pain

ABSTRACT

Osteoarthritis pain affects the lives of a large number of people around the world. Understanding other people's experience is integral to effective care and qualitative research can have an important part to pay in education and good clinical practice. We aimed to systematically search for, identify, and synthesise qualitative research exploring the experience of living with osteoarthritis in order to incorporate this knowledge into an educational resource. We comprehensively searched four bibliographic databases and used the methods of meta-ethnography to synthesise qualitative research findings. We screened 10123 titles, 548 abstracts and 139 full texts. We included findings from 118 reports (105 unique samples) of at least 2534 adults living with osteoarthritis around the world. We developed 7 themes from more than 600 findings: it is part of my life's tapestry; (yet) it is consuming me; it constrains my body and my occupations; I am becoming separated yet dependent; I accept, but I will not let it define me; (yet) this makes me feel less than the person I was. Our findings highlight the profound impact that osteoarthritis can have on people's lives and the struggle to hold onto a sense of self. They indicate that recognising these losses, and taking osteoarthritis seriously, is an integral part of effective healthcare. This finding may be transferable beyond this condition.

Prevalence, Impact, and Treatment of Co-Occurring Osteoarthritis in Patients With Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: A Review

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Early, frequent rehabilitation is an important factor for optimizing stroke recovery outcomes. Medical comorbidities, such as osteoarthritis, that affect the ability to participate in rehabilitation could therefore have a detrimental impact on such outcomes. Both stroke and osteoarthritis are becoming more common in developed nations as the population ages. First-line osteoarthritis treatments, such as oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are often avoided poststroke due to interaction with secondary prevention stroke risk-factor management. Our objective was to summarize the current literature concerning co-occurring osteoarthritis and stroke prevalence, its functional impact, and treatment options.

METHODS

Narrative review using a comprehensive literature search of PubMed, osteoarthritis, and stroke guidelines. Outcomes related to co-occurrence prevalence, osteoarthritis as a stroke risk-factor, osteoarthritis-related imaging and treatment were extracted and summarized descriptively. Overall quality of the evidence was summarized using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation.

RESULTS

We identified 23 studies and guidelines related to our objective. Overall quality of the evidence was very low.

CONCLUSIONS

Few trials have investigated the relationship between osteoarthritis and stroke, nor osteoarthritis-specific pain and function management for stroke survivors. High-quality research evaluating the impact of osteoarthritis on stroke rehabilitation is needed.

Does characterising patterns of multimorbidity in stroke matter for developing collaborative care approaches in primary care?

Stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) remain leading causes of mortality and morbidity globally. Although mortality rates have been in decline, the number of people affected by stroke has risen. These patients have a range of long-term needs and often present to primary care. Furthermore, many of these patients have multimorbidities which increase the complexity of their healthcare. Long-term impacts from stroke/TIA along with care needs for other morbidities can be challenging to address because care can involve different healthcare professionals, both specialist and generalist. In the ideal model of care, such professionals would work collaboratively to provide care. Despite the commonality of multimorbidity in stroke/TIA, gaps in the literature remain, particularly limited knowledge of pairings or clusters of comorbid conditions and the extent to which these are interrelated. Moreover, integrated care practices are less well understood and remain variable in practice. This article argues that it is important to understand (through research) patterns of multimorbidity, including number, common clusters and types of comorbidities, and current interprofessional practice to inform future directions to improve long-term care.

Increasing comorbidity and health services utilization in older adults with prior stroke

OBJECTIVE

To characterize comorbid chronic conditions, describe health services use, and estimate health care costs among community-dwelling older adults with prior stroke.

METHODS

This is a retrospective cohort study using administrative data from Ontario, Canada. We identified all community-dwelling individuals aged 66 and over on April 1, 2008 (baseline), who had experienced a stroke at least 6 months prior. We estimated the prevalence of 14 comorbid conditions at baseline; we captured all physician visits, emergency department visits, hospital admissions, home care contacts, and associated costs over 5 years stratifying by number of comorbid conditions. Where possible, we distinguished between health services use for stroke- and non-stroke-related reasons.

RESULTS

A total of 29,673 individuals met our criteria. Only 1% had no comorbid conditions, while 74.9% had 3 or more. The most common conditions were hypertension (89.8%) and arthritis (65.8%); 5 other conditions had a prevalence of 20% or more (ischemic heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and dementia). Use of all health services doubled with increasing comorbidity and was largely attributed to non-stroke-related reasons. Total and per-patient costs increased with comorbidity. Main cost drivers shifted from physician and home care visits to hospital admissions with greater comorbidity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrate the importance of community-based patient-centered care strategies for stroke survivors that address their range of health needs and prevent more costly acute care use.

Stroke, multimorbidity and polypharmacy in a nationally representative sample of 1,424,378 patients in Scotland: implications for treatment burden

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of multimorbidity (the presence of two or more long-term conditions) is rising internationally. Multimorbidity affects patients by increasing their burden of symptoms, but is also likely to increase the self-care demands, or treatment burden, that they experience. Treatment burden refers to the effort expended in operationalising treatments, navigating healthcare systems and managing relations with healthcare providers. This is an important problem for people with chronic illness such as stroke. Polypharmacy is an important marker of both multimorbidity and burden of treatment. In this study, we examined the prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy in a large, nationally representative population of primary care patients with and without stroke, adjusting for age, sex and deprivation.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study of 1,424,378 participants aged 18 years and over, from 314 primary care practices in Scotland that were known to be demographically representative of the Scottish adult population. Data included information on the presence of stroke and another 39 long-term conditions, plus prescriptions for regular medications.

RESULTS

In total, 35,690 people (2.5%) had a diagnosis of stroke. Of the 39 comorbidities examined, 35 were significantly more common in people with stroke. Of the people with a stroke, the proportion that had one or more additional morbidities present (94.2%) was almost twice that in the control group (48%) (odds ratio (OR) adjusted for age, sex and socioeconomic deprivation 5.18; 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.95 to 5.43). In the stroke group, 12.6% had a record of 11 or more repeat prescriptions compared with only 1.5% of the control group (OR adjusted for age, sex, deprivation and morbidity count 15.84; 95% CI 14.86 to 16.88). Limitations include the use of data collected for clinical rather than research purposes, a lack of consensus in the literature on the definition of certain long-term conditions, and the absence of statistical weighting in the measurement of multimorbidity, although the latter was deemed suitable for descriptive analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Multimorbidity and polypharmacy were strikingly more common in those with a diagnosis of stroke compared with those without. This has important implications for clinical guidelines and the design of health services.

Uncovering treatment burden as a key concept for stroke care: a systematic review of qualitative research

BACKGROUND

Patients with chronic disease may experience complicated management plans requiring significant personal investment. This has been termed 'treatment burden' and has been associated with unfavourable outcomes. The aim of this systematic review is to examine the qualitative literature on treatment burden in stroke from the patient perspective.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

The search strategy centred on: stroke, treatment burden, patient experience, and qualitative methods. We searched: Scopus, CINAHL, Embase, Medline, and PsycINFO. We tracked references, footnotes, and citations. Restrictions included: English language, date of publication January 2000 until February 2013. Two reviewers independently carried out the following: paper screening, data extraction, and data analysis. Data were analysed using framework synthesis, as informed by Normalization Process Theory. Sixty-nine papers were included. Treatment burden includes: (1) making sense of stroke management and planning care, (2) interacting with others, (3) enacting management strategies, and (4) reflecting on management. Health care is fragmented, with poor communication between patient and health care providers. Patients report inadequate information provision. Inpatient care is unsatisfactory, with a perceived lack of empathy from professionals and a shortage of stimulating activities on the ward. Discharge services are poorly coordinated, and accessing health and social care in the community is difficult. The study has potential limitations because it was restricted to studies published in English only and data from low-income countries were scarce.

CONCLUSIONS

Stroke management is extremely demanding for patients, and treatment burden is influenced by micro and macro organisation of health services. Knowledge deficits mean patients are ill equipped to organise their care and develop coping strategies, making adherence less likely. There is a need to transform the approach to care provision so that services are configured to prioritise patient needs rather than those of health care systems.