title: Participant evaluation of a telephone-based osteoarthritis self-management program, 2006-2009.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Self-management support interventions can help improve osteoarthritis outcomes but are underused. Little is known about how participants evaluate the helpfulness of these programs. We describe participants' evaluations of a telephone-based, osteoarthritis self-management support intervention that yielded improved outcomes in a clinical trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 140 people in the intervention arm of the trial who completed an end-of-trial survey. We used mixed methods to describe participants' perceived helpfulness of the program and its components. We compared ratings of helpfulness according to participant characteristics and analyzed themes from open-ended responses with a constant comparison approach. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients between perceived helpfulness and changes in pain, function, affect, and self-efficacy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average rating of overall helpfulness on a scale from 1 to 10 was 7.6 (standard deviation, 2.3), and more than 80% of participants agreed that each component (phone calls, educational material, setting goals and action plans) was helpful. Participants had better perceived helpfulness ratings than their counterparts if they were nonwhite, had limited health literacy, had no college education, had perceived inadequate income, were older, had a spouse or were living together in a committed relationship, and had greater symptom duration and less pain. Ratings of helpfulness increased with greater improvement in outcomes. Participants frequently mentioned the health educator's calls as being helpful for staying on task with self-management behaviors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants viewed this intervention and each of its components as helpful for improving osteoarthritis symptoms. In addition to the improvements in objective outcomes seen in the clinical trial, these results provide further support for the dissemination of self-management support interventions.
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research and Development Service, Durham VA Medical Center, 411 W Chapel Hill St, Ste 600, Durham, NC 27701, USA. nina.sperber@duke.edu
authors.forename: Nina R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Sperber
authors.forename: Hayden B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Bosworth
authors.forename: Cynthia J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Coffman
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Juntilla
authors.forename: Jennifer H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lindquist
authors.forename: Eugene Z
authors.initials: EZ
authors.lastname: Oddone
authors.forename: Tessa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Morris
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinberger
authors.forename: Kelli D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000628:therapy*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012648:Self Care; D013689:Telephone; D016896:Treatment Outcome