Personalized risk calculator for knee OA may promote knowledge, change

A personalized risk calculator for knee osteoarthritis in young adults appears to be a successful tool to promote education and may serve as a catalyst for exercise-related lifestyle changes, according to recent findings.
In the randomized controlled trial, researchers tested the effectiveness of an online risk calculator developed for knee osteoarthritis (OA). They evaluated 375 participants (mean age, 32 years) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, and tested the ability of the calculator to educate participants regarding their individual risk of knee OA.

An intervention group utilized the personalized risk calculator (OA Risk C), which was based on patient demographics and risk-factor data, and a control group was provided with general OA risk information. Patients estimated their perceived 10-year risk and lifetime risk of knee OA at baseline and post-intervention. Additionally, these subjects participated in contemplation ladders, which are instruments used to measure willingness to change. Participants ranked their willingness to change diet, exercise and weight control before and after use of the risk calculator.
The primary outcome was the change in patient-reported perception of 10-year and lifetime risk of knee OA. The secondary outcome was willingness to change. Researchers found that as approximated by the OA Risk C, participants in both arms had an average 3.6% chance of developing symptomatic knee OA within the next 10 years and a 25.3% chance of knee OA development in their lifetime. At baseline, the control group had a mean 10-year risk perception of 26.9% and a mean lifetime risk perception of 48%. At baseline, the mean 10-year risk perception for the intervention group was similar at 25.4% (95% CI, 22.0-28.8) and the mean lifetime risk perception was 47.6%. After using the risk calculator (intervention arm) or viewing general OA information (control arm), however, investigators found the risk perception changed. The 10-year risk perception of the intervention arm decreased by 12.9 percentage points to 12.5% and perceived lifetime risk dropped by 19.5 percentage points to 28.1%.
Conversely, the control arm did not report a change in risk perception. In this group, perceived 10-year risk increased by 0.8 percentage points to 27.7% and perceived lifetime risk decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 47.1%.

In terms of willingness to change, subjects in the intervention group were more likely to reach an “action stage” on the exercise contemplation ladder; 26.9% of intervention participants moved into an exercise action stage vs. 13.6% of control participants.
“This study suggests that the knee OA Risk C may be a successful public health tool both for raising awareness of knee OA risk and increasing motivation to change exercise-related behaviors that are associated with OA risk,” the researchers wrote. “To determine the optimal way to implement the OA Risk C, future studies may examine whether its effect on motivation changes based on the user’s age or other demographic factors.” – by Jennifer Byrne

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.