Management of Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis in Primary Health Care

Previous research has shown that the osteoarthritis care for persons with hip or knee osteoarthritis in Norway has a potential for improvement as the provided care may not necessarily reflect evidence-based guideline recommendations. This study will determine if a new model for integrated osteoarthritis (OA) care in primary health care will result in improved quality of osteoarthritis care and health benefits for the patients (reduced pain and body weight, increased function and activity level) among patients with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis. Further, this study will examine if the new model reduce the number of unnecessary referrals to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and to orthopaedic surgeons in secondary care, and if it increases the number of referrals to physiotherapy treatment and the number of discharge reports from the physiotherapists to the referring general practitioner.