Physician Awareness of Knee and Hip Pain in the Context of Coronary Heart Disease Treatment

Mathias Glehr,Reingard Glehr,Gerald Gruber,Joanna Szkandera,Sabine Ludt,Anna Kaltenbach,Michel Wensing,Patrick Sadoghi,Andreas Leithner,Reinhold Glehr,Ines Vielgut

doi:10.1155/2014/494801

Abstract

Background. The benefit of physical activity for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been well documented. The aim of the present study was to determine the level of awareness among general practitioners (GPs) of knee and hip problems in patients with CVD or CVD risk. Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Setting and Subjects. Thirty-five Austrian GPs and 1,118 patients were included. The GPs completed an extraction form about the presence or absence of documented evidence of problems related to the knee and/or hip joint within the patient medical data. Patients, in turn, were asked to complete a questionnaire that included the Oxford Knee/Hip Score and the cardiovascular risk-chart established by the European Society of Cardiology. Results. In 748 patients' data from medical records and questionnaires were available. 40.9% of these patients suffered from serious knee pain and 32.1% from hip pain. However, in the medical records, in only 51.3% (knee) and 48.1% (hip) of these pain-patients the problems were documented. Conclusion. Joint disorders of the knee and hip problems are considerable barriers to effective physical activity and can therefore contribute to the development of CVD. Our data showed that GP awareness of such knee/hip disorders should be improved.

Highlights

The benefit of physical activity for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been well documented
To date, these guidelines have made no mention of the fact that osteoarthrotic pain in the knee and hip joint is a barrier to physical activity and should be addressed during clinical consultation of CVD patients [1]
Thirty-eight Austrian general practitioners (GPs) participated in the study—data from 35 GPs could be used because a lack of data quality from 3 GPs

Summary

Introduction

The benefit of physical activity for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been well documented. Regular physical activity and aerobic exercise training are recommended as a very important nonpharmacological treatment for primary and secondary CVD prevention [2,3,4,5,6] To date, these guidelines have made no mention of the fact that osteoarthrotic pain in the knee and hip joint is a barrier to physical activity and should be addressed during clinical consultation of CVD patients [1]. This is problematic when one considers that patients with osteoarthritis seem to have higher CVD risk factors than the general population in all observed categories (hypertension, diabetes, high total cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, and renal impairment or failure) [7]. Even in the more disabled patients, small amounts of properly supervised physical activity help improve cardiovascular status, maintain an independent lifestyle, and counteract disease-related

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Conclusion