Assessing the efficacy of educating patients on a day-to-day basis with an app in the first 4 weeks after total knee replacement surgery
In modern medicine patients are often being discharged from the hospital within 2 or 3 days after a total knee replacement surgery. In order for patients to be able to manage their new home situation, they are provided with information about pain management, physiotherapy exercises, wound care and everyday things like taking a shower. This information is provided to patients by doctors, nurses and physiotherapists. Patients however are merely capable of processing all the information and therefor often leave the hospital with limited knowledge and confidence to take care for themselves.
A surgeon-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted with 202 patients who underwent knee replacement surgery in one of the 5 participating hospitals.
In total, 105 patients were enrolled in the app group and 97 in the control group. Preliminary results indicate a significant difference from week 1 onwards for self-management and satisfaction, in favour of the app group. From week 2 onwards, (significant) differences are demonstrated for the other outcomes.
Providing patients with an app to offer them day-to-day education after their total knee replacement surgery is a valuable addition to the standard of care. It not only increases self-management, satisfaction and pain-management but has a significant impact on knee outcome scores as well.
The research is published in het JMIR mHealth magazine. Read the abstract and full article here
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