Patient education and self-management of musculoskeletal diseases

The research literature reports that patient (consumer) education and self-management programs and practices help people with chronic disease live better lives by improving health outcomes and psycho-emotional and psychosocial measures. However, arthritis charities that offer self-management programs in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada anecdotally report significant drops in enrollment, and emerging data suggest that these types of programs are not a panacea for people attending them. This chapter will provide the reader with the following: an introduction to patient education and self-management; a discussion on participation rates in patient education and arthritis self-management programs; an overview of the ‘state-of-the-art’ in patient education and self-management programs; new ideas on patient education delivery models; tips on improving physician–patient communication; and suggested areas of research required to advance the area of patient education and self-management.

Key words: arthritis, patient education, self-management, public awareness