Health Talk

Topic:

Osteoarthritis and Exercise prescription

Background:



Reasons for choosing this Topic:

It has become clear to us during our community outreach visits that there are numerous patients who have osteoarthritis and are not being managed appropriately. Most of the patients that we have treated do not know that they have osteoarthritis and have no idea what osteoarthritis is. To make matters worse, the patients are not adhering to their home exercise programs, which lead us to believe that they do not know the importance of exercise as a treatment option. We feel that it will be useful to treat patients as a group class when doing community outreach as there are a large number of patients who have osteoarthritis

Aims of the health talk:

To create awareness in the community about osteoarthritis and treatment options to manage this condition.

Objectives:

To educate patients in the community about osteoarthritis.

To explain the importance of adhering to an exercise program.

To explain the correct manner of performing exercises.

To Educate about the benefits of Physical Activity in the community.

Target population:

Patient in the following clinics suffering from osteoarthritis:

• Mbhokota Clinic
• Bungeni Clinic
• Muwaweni
• Mashamba
• Wayeni

Ethical Considerations:

Permission was obtained from the nursing staff at each clinic of the above mentioned communities. After a thorough explanation regarding the health talk and procedures to be followed, consent forms were issued to each participant to gain permission to do the health talk and allow us to take photographs. All data will be kept confidential and will only be used for academic purposes.


Method:

Information leaflets were created in Venda and Shangaan.

A verbal presentation, using a translator, was given to educate the participants regarding osteoarthritis
A poster was created showing the exercise routine that should be followed by the patients. We also instructed a group exercise class and taught patients the correct manner of performing these exercises.

Leaflets

Evaluation of the health talk (Effectiveness):

A mini questionnaire was handed out before and after the health talk to see if patients had learnt anything from the talk.

Benefits:

The participants will have gained knowledge about OA and we hope that they will be in a position to effectively do self treatment and create community awareness with regards to OA. The clinicians at Elim, can use our exercise protocol for future community outreach projects.

Recommendations and advice:

Acknowledgements:

References:

Pictures: