Staying active with physiotherapy in patients with osteoarthritis

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    STaying Active with Physiotherapy in patients with Lower-limb Osteoarthritis (STAPLO): Feasibility Trial

  • IRAS ID

    303710

  • Contact name

    Joan Duda

  • Contact email

    j.l.duda@bham.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Birmingham

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 4 months, 28 days

  • Research summary

    Staying active with physiotherapy in patients with osteoarthritis

    The usual cause of pain in people 45 years of age or more is osteoarthritis (OA). Increasing levels of activity is one of the best ways to reduce the pain of lower limb OA.

    Physiotherapists (physios) help people with OA be more active. However, people with OA tend to be less active than those without pain. They therefore find it hard to follow physios’ suggestions.

    NICE guidelines suggest physio should include some theory. This helps us understand how treatment works and makes it work better.

    We’ll study how theory can help OA patients be as active as they can. Ours is the first physio treatment to try this.

    We aim to see how well OA patients and physios accept our approach. We also want to know if physios can deliver the treatment in the NHS

    We’ll offer our treatment to lower-limb OA patients referred to physio at Birmingham’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH). Those taking part will have about six physio sessions. They can have their sessions in person at the ROH, by phone, or by ‘Attend Anywhere’ which is a secure virtual platform used by the NHS.

    We’ll also ask about ten of these people what they think of the treatment after they finish. We’ll then follow them all up for six months. The physios involved will also give their views of the treatment and how well it could run in the NHS.

    All this will tell us if the treatment is acceptable and useful. Then we’ll decide if it’s worth doing a proper trial or not.

  • REC name

    London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/PR/1490

  • Date of REC Opinion

    2 Nov 2021

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion