OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effectiveness of patient education and self-management interventions for osteoarthritis (OA) in adults aged ≥ 18 years. DESIGN: Overview of intervention systematic reviews LITERATURE SEARCH: Eight databases (Medline, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Epistemonikos, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, and CINAHL) were searched from inception to June 26, 2024. STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: We included intervention systematic reviews (SRs), with or without meta-analysis, that evaluated patient education or self-management interventions for adults with OA, reporting pain or functional outcomes. DATA SYNTHESIS: Data were extracted using a standardized template. We extracted intervention effects on pain and function. Methodological quality was evaluated using AMSTAR 2 checklist. We assessed the overlap of studies included in the SRs using the Corrected Covered Area (CCA) method. RESULTS: Nineteen SRs (12 with meta-analysis) encompassing 171 trials were included. Patient education interventions had modest effects on reducing short-term pain (SMD = −0.22 to −0.35). There were no sustained or consistent effects of patient education interventions on function. Self-management interventions yielded small and consistent effects on reducing pain (SMDs ranging approximately from −0.20 to −1.51) and improving function (SMDs up to 1.95), especially over the long term and when combined with patient education. Methodological quality was generally low; 1 SR was rated as high quality. There was slight overlap among included trials (CCA 1.5% for patient education and 4.6% for self-management). CONCLUSION: Self-management interventions, particularly when integrated with patient education or other therapies, may offer more robust and lasting benefits for OA management than patient education alone.
Chan et al. (2026) studied this question.