The GLA:D® Canada program for knee and hip osteoarthritis: A comprehensive profile of program participants from 2017 to 2022

Abstract

Background The Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D®) program was implemented in Canada in 2017 with the aim of making treatment guideline-recommended care available to the 4 million Canadians with knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA). This report describes the GLA:D® Canada program, registry and data collection procedures, and summarizes the sociodemographic and clinical profile of participants with knee and hip OA to inform the scientific research community of the availability of these data for future investigations and collaborations. Methods The GLA:D® program consists of three standardized components: a training course for health care providers, a group-based patient education and exercise therapy program, and a participant data registry. Patients seeking care for knee or hip OA symptoms and enrolling in GLA:D® are given the option to provide data to the GLA:D® Canada registry. Participants agreeing to provide data complete a pre-program survey and are followed up after 3-, and 12-months. Data collected on the pre-program and follow-up surveys include sociodemographic factors, clinical characteristics, health status measures, and objective physical function tests. These variables were selected to capture information across relevant health constructs and for future research investigations. Results At 2022 year-end, a total of 15,193 (11,228 knee; 3,965 hip) participants were included in the GLA:D® Canada registry with 7,527 (knee; 67.0%) and 2,798 (hip; 70.6%) providing pre-program data. Participants were 66 years of age on average, predominately female, and overweight or obese. Typically, participants had knee or hip problems for multiple years prior to initiating GLA:D®, multiple symptomatic knee and hip joints, and at least one medical comorbidity. Before starting the program, the average pain intensity was 5 out of 10, with approximately 2 out of 3 participants using pain medication and 1 in 3 participants reporting a desire to have joint surgery. Likewise, 9 out 10 participants report having previously been given a diagnosis of OA, with 9 out 10 also reporting having had a radiograph, of which approximately 87% reported the radiograph showed signs of OA. Conclusion We have described the GLA:D® Canada program, registry and data collection procedures, and provided a detailed summary to date of the profiles of participants with knee and hip OA. These individual participant data have the potential to be linked with local health administrative data registries and comparatively assessed with other international GLA:D® registries. Researchers are invited to make use of these rich datasets and participate in collaborative endeavours to tackle questions of Canadian and global importance for a large and growing clinical population of individuals with hip and knee OA.

Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Traditional Chinese Exercise and Osteoarthritis

“…Indeed, the hip, as one of the most common sites of OA, has gradually attracted the attention of researchers. 48 , 49 The balance and gait of patients with mild to moderate hip OA will change, and long-term weight bearing will aggravate the development of the disease. 50 Ultimately, function can be restored only by hip replacement.…”

Total Knee Arthroplasty Versus Education and Exercise for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Propensity‐Matched Analysis

“…Patients with knee OA in the GLA:D Canada Edu +Ex program between 2016 and 2019 with complete data and who did not undergo any surgery in the 12-month follow-up period were included in this study. 22 Patients are not eligible for the program if they have joint problems related to other conditions (eg, recent trauma, inflammatory disease, etc) or have other symptoms that are more pronounced than OA symptoms (eg, fibromyalgia). This Edu+Ex program is delivered predominately by physical therapists across Canada.…”

The social and organisational factors shaping acceptability of a self-management education and exercise intervention for people with hip or knee osteoarthritis in Greenland

“…This is more important when an intervention is developed in a ruling country and adapted to an autonomous territory where the ethnic group and culture differ significantly. In Canada, all patient education materials were translated from Danish to English and cross-culturally adapted for the Canadian context in 2015, including revising the materials to Canadian English terminology and the recommended language level for patient education materials [ 26 , 27 ].…”