Management of foot/ankle osteoarthritis by Australian general practitioners: an analysis of national patient-encounter records

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Summary

Objective

To document the management of foot/ankle osteoarthritis/arthritis (OA) by general practitioners (GP) in Australia.

Design

We analysed data from the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health Program April 2010–March 2016 inclusive. Patient and GP encounter characteristics were extracted. Data were classified by the International Classification of Primary Care, Version 2, and summarised using descriptive statistics and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) around point estimates.

Results

The dataset included 583,900 patient-encounter records among which foot/ankle OA was managed 621 times, at a rate of 1.1 per 1000 encounters, with an annual estimated 152,000 GP encounters nationally. The management rate was most frequent among patients aged 65–74 years (2.25 per 1000 encounters). Comorbidities were managed at a rate of 105.8 per 100 encounters, the most common being hypertension, and few being other musculoskeletal problems. Foot/ankle OA was mostly managed using medication (64.6 per 100 problems), with prescription rates far exceeding non-pharmacological strategies such as counselling, advice or education (17.7 per 100), or allied health referral (10.1 per 100). When considering specific health/medical professionals, patients were referred to orthopaedic surgeons 8.4 times per 100 foot/ankle problems, podiatrists 6.3 times per 100 foot/ankle problems, and physiotherapists 2.6 times per 100 foot/ankle problems.

Conclusions

Pharmacological management rates of foot/ankle OA were high and substantially exceeded non-pharmacological management such as lifestyle advice and allied health referral. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of this care compared to self-management and conservative non-drug treatment in people with foot/ankle OA.

Keywords

Foot osteoarthritis
Primary care
General practice
Foot pain

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