A comprehensive health education plus monitoring support program for older adults with knee osteoarthritis coexisting with overweight and type 2 diabetes

OBJECTIVES: To examine the patient outcomes of a comprehensive health education plus village health volunteer monitoring support program on older adults with knee osteoarthritis who are overweight and have type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Quasi-experimental, two-group, pretest-posttest design was applied. Using random geographic cluster sampling, older adults who met the inclusion criteria were assigned to two groups, 62 in the intervention group and 71 in the control group. The intervention group received the comprehensive health education plus village health volunteer monitoring support program. The control group received only the comprehensive health education program. Study outcomes, including blood glucose level, knee pain and range of motion, body weight, physical ability (Timed Up and Go Test), fatigue, depressive symptoms, quality of sleep, and quality of life, were assessed at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months after enrollment and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. RESULTS: One hundred and ten participants completed the study (55 participants in each group). Most patient outcomes in the two groups showed general improvement with statistical significance (P ≤ 0.001): pain decreased, physical ability improved, less depressive symptoms and fatigue, quality of life and sleep improved. The interaction effect (the group and time) demonstrated statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups on pain, knee range of motion, and fatigue according to each time follow-up (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive health education plus village health volunteer monitoring support program promotes good patient outcomes in this population. The integrated health education resource and support for older adults with knee osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes is an effective, non-surgical treatment that highlights professional nursing roles and non-professional roles—village health volunteers. Nurses should consider implementing a health education plus monitoring support program to mitigate the effects of chronic diseases and improve patients’ quality of life.