Osteoarthritis of the hip or knee joint is a widespread disease with a strong influence on the quality of life. At present, the extent of conservative treatment with physical therapies and analgesics before the use of a total joint arthroplasty (TJA) of the hip or knee is largely unclear in Germany.
The aim was to analyze the prescription frequency according to regional and socio-demographic factors.
Based on routine health care data from BARMER insurance, patients who received a TJA of the hip or knee from 2011 to 2013 were analyzed. Included were consistently insured patients with the main discharge diagnosis of osteoarthritis who did not receive any further TJA for eight quarters before and after replacement. The prescription frequency of physical therapies and analgesics, stratified according to age groups, gender, number of comorbidities and federal state was analyzed.
40,242 persons with hip TJA and 35,652 persons with knee TJA were included. In the year prior to surgery, 49.4% of patients (hip TJA: 49.9%; knee TJA: 48.9%) received at least one physical therapy and 81.0% were prescribed analgesics. Regionally, the prescription frequency of physical therapies for hip TJA varied between 35.7% (Bremen) and 70.6% (Saxony) and for knee TJA between 37.6% (Saarland) and 66.9% (Saxony).
The prescription frequency of physical therapy does not fully correspond to current treatment recommendations. The prescription of physical therapies in the year before the TEP shows regional differences, with fundamentally lower prescription frequencies in the former states of West Germany.