Pain Medication Beliefs among Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis Patients

Introduction: Osteoarthritis is a chronic and incurable degenerative disease commonly affecting the knee and hip joints. Pain medications as a treatment modality can alleviate osteoarthritis symptoms of pain, swelling, and stiffness. This study aimed to identify knee and hip osteoarthritis patients' beliefs towards pain medications. The association between sociodemographic characteristics and pain medication belief was then assessed. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Port Dickson Hospital, Negeri Sembilan by using universal sampling method. Data collection forms were utilized to document sociodemographic characteristics of study participants, while belief towards pain medications was assessed through Treatment beliefs in the knee and hip OsteoArthritis (TOA) questionnaire. The results were illustrated using descriptive statistics. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test was further applied for inferential analysis. Results: Out of 47 study participants, the majority of them were female (61.7%), aged more than or equal to 60 years old (63.8%), had affected knee osteoarthritis (80.9%), had underlying cardiovascular disease (63.8%) and underwent physiotherapy (74.5%). TOA questionnaire showed positive belief median score of 21 (17-21) and negative belief median score of 23 (15-31). There was a significant association between gender and osteoarthritis treatment with positive belief towards pain medication, indicated by female study participants (U = 161.50, p = 0.021) and physiotherapy treatment (U = 78.00, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Overall, participants in this study had equal positive and negative beliefs towards pain medications. Female gender and physiotherapy treatment was associated with positive belief towards pain medications. Future studies conducted at a multicenter scale could be explored to gain better insight into osteoarthritis patients' pain medication beliefs. Disclaimer: Abstract text might vary slightly from what is displayed in the e-poster.This poster was submitted to the 14th National Conference for Clinical Research (NCCR) in August 18-20, 2021. https://nccrconference.com.my