Abstract
Introduction
Knee osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability, resulting in substantial personal and societal burdens worldwide. 1 All major clinical practice guidelines for knee osteoarthritis recommend patient education as first-line care, alongside exercise therapy and when appropriate, weight management.2–6 Patient education is particularly important considering its potential to influence self-management and engagement with other first-line interventions7,8 and willingness to undergo surgery.9,10 However, a large proportion of people with knee osteoarthritis do not receive adequate patient education or engage in first-line care.11–13 For example, only one-third of people with knee osteoarthritis feel informed about the condition, treatment options, and how to self-manage prior to an orthopaedic consultation. 14
Barriers to people with knee osteoarthritis receiving patient education and engaging in first-line care are complex, spanning multiple levels when viewed from a socio-ecological perspective.
15
For example, lack of knowledge, low self-efficacy, lack of peer support, length of consultation times, availability (or lack thereof) of resources and access to facilities or care pathways, represent individual, interpersonal, institutional and policy level barriers.16–19 People with chronic health conditions such as osteoarthritis commonly present with misinformed beliefs, possibly influenced by increasing use of web-based resources
20
containing inaccurate information.
21
Barriers also exist from a health professional's perspective, including insufficient knowledge, confidence and capability to provide accurate and patient-centred education.8,17,18 Education provided by health professionals may not strongly align with the education priorities of people with knee osteoarthritis or clinical practice guidelines.22,23 Additionally, the poor reporting of education interventions in clinical trials,
24
alongside the absence of clear recommendations in guidelines2–6 for ‘
Co-designing (i.e., collaborating with end-users to create, test and refine) interventions and resources can improve patient satisfaction and is considered best practice.25,26 However, just 10% of education interventions for people with knee osteoarthritis in clinical trials, 23 and no websites about knee osteoarthritis included in a recent web-based evaluation 21 were developed using co-design methods. The absence of co-design methods to create e-resources may partially explain why, to date, they have shown little potential for promoting behaviour change for people with osteoarthritis. 27 Comprehensive web-based resources, such as My Joint Pain, 28 do exist to support people to self-manage their knee osteoarthritis. However, there has been limited involvement of people with knee osteoarthritis in the design, development of content and usability testing of these resources to facilitate engagement in their use.28,29 Co-designing web-based resources with greater involvement of stakeholders including people with knee osteoarthritis, health professionals supporting them, and expers are therefore warranted. Co-design methods may increase the appeal, use of and engagement with, web-based resources to support education and self-management of people with knee osteoarthritis, in both a self-directed and therapist-facilitated manner.
The aim of this study is to describe the co-design processes undertaken, and resultant learnings, to create the freely available web-based Translating Research Evidence and Knowledge (TREK) ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit for people with knee osteoarthritis.
Methods
Reporting of this study has been guided by the CONSORT-EHEALTH checklist
30
(Supplementary Appendix A). The specific aims of the TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit were to:
Improve an individual's (living with knee osteoarthritis) knowledge about the condition to inform treatment decision-making and self-management; Provide tools to facilitate self-efficacy for, and engagement in, guideline-recommended first-line care; and Provide health professionals with resources that can be used clinically when educating and facilitating self-management for patients with knee osteoarthritis.
La Trobe Human Ethics Committee approved the co-design process (HEC 20188). The in-depth, engaging and iterative process applied to create the ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit was informed by various accepted co-design methodologies,31–33 but most closely aligned to the Good Things Foundation (www.goodthingsfoundation.org) pathfinder model for digital health inclusion (2019).
33
We further broke down the three stages from the Good Things Foundation pathfinder model
33
: (i) understand and define, (ii) prototype and (iii) test and iterate, into six distinct steps (Figure 1). Steps 1–4 ran concurrently, with steps 5 and 6 occurring in successive order after the completion of the prototype.

Three-stage, six-step co-design process used to create the TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit.
Stage (i): Understand and define
Step 1 involved a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of patient education as a stand-alone intervention, and in combination with other interventions. 34 Detailed evaluation of the content, development plus delivery method and mode of patient education interventions from the systematic review was also performed. 23 These assessments included appraising the comprehensiveness and accuracy of content based upon clinical practice guidelines, expert opinion and clinical research. Step 2 involved appraising commonly-accessed web-based resources for people with knee osteoarthritis in Australia, including evaluating their comprehensiveness, accuracy, credibility, readability and quality of information about treatment choices. 21 Step 3 identified the education priorities of people with knee osteoarthritis 24 and physiotherapists 22 using a mixed-methods concept mapping approach. Specifically, participants in both groups identified education priorities and rated them according to their perceived importance and either, confidence that they would receive the information (people with knee osteoarthritis) or, capability to provide education to address that priority (physiotherapists).
Stage (ii): Prototype
Step 4 involved developing a prototype of the TREK ‘My Knee’ toolkit using WordPress® (www.wordpress.org), hosted as a TREK subdomain (www.trekeducation.org). TREK is a not-for-profit initiative that aims to develop and share freely available web-based digital resources to support the education of health professionals and people managing musculoskeletal pain and other chronic diseases. Care was taken to ensure that content was aligned with the education priorities of people with knee osteoarthritis and health professionals,22,24 clinical practice guideline recommendations,2–6 and key research evidence that informed previous ancillary 23 and web content 21 analyses. The Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) 35 and DISCERN 36 criteria were also considered during content development.
Stage (iii): Test and iterate
Step 5 involved three workshops to test, obtain feedback and refine the toolkit, including resources contained within it. Workshops 1 and 3 involved people with lived experience of knee osteoarthritis. Workshop 2 involved health professionals who commonly provide care for people with knee osteoarthritis. Participants were recruited via multiple channels, including the Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark® (GLA:D®) Australia (www.gladaustralia.com.au) and Musculoskeletal Australia (MSK Australia) (www.msk.org.au) email distribution lists, social media (Facebook and Twitter), contacts from related concept mapping projects22,24 and the professional networks of the research team. To reduce feedback bias during workshop 3 (final workshop), people with lived experience of knee osteoarthritis were not eligible to participate if they were involved in creating any videos embedded within the toolkit.
Potential workshop participants followed an electronic link on the recruitment materials to a web-based platform where they provided consent, self-confirmed eligibility, answered baseline demographic questions and provided their email addresses for further communication. All participants were provided with a link to access the draft version of the toolkit at least one week before their workshop or individual session and were asked to explore the toolkit's contents. All workshops were 2 hours long and included an introduction presentation, breakout room activities and group discussions. Workshops were run by physiotherapists who have an interest in knee osteoarthritis research. The lead toolkit developer (AJG) led group discussions, with two other members of the research team experienced in qualitative and co-design methodology (AME and CJB) leading breakout room activities. Guides were created by four members of the research team (AJG, AME, CJB and DOS) to ensure consistency of breakout room activities (see Supplementary Appendix B). A fourth researcher (DOS) switched between rooms to ensure consistency. Interested participants who could not attend a workshop were invited to provide individual feedback via a recorded video meeting using ZoomTM (with AJG, the lead toolkit developer) or via email. Individual meetings lasted approximately 30–40 min, covering the same topics as the workshops. All participants (people with knee osteoarthritis and health professionals) who provided feedback via any means received a supermarket voucher for their time (AUD 40). Revisions were made to the toolkit following each workshop, with participants in the subsequent workshops being provided with a link to the most updated version.
All workshop discussions were audio and video recorded, plus attending members of the research team took field notes. Two members of the research team (AJG and AME) independently reviewed audio and video recordings, plus researcher field notes to identify common themes and specific areas for improvement. Potential themes or areas for improvement were discussed by the research team during meetings following each workshop, with action plans agreed upon before making changes to the toolkit and resources.
To create lived experience video resources following workshop 1, participants from the first workshop and the concept mapping study completed during step 3 24 were emailed (by AJG) to ask for volunteers to share their stories. Videos were created by recording semi-structured interviews with a researcher (AJG) using ZoomTM, guided by a topic guide (see Supplementary Appendix C). Responses were subsequently edited to create short engaging video clips. All participants gave consent and could view and provide feedback on the edited videos, including suggested changes, to ensure that their views and opinions were accurately represented. Each lived experience video participant received a supermarket voucher as compensation for their time (AUD 40). To create the expert/clinician videos, content experts (e.g., exercise therapy, medications, diet, etc.) from the research team's network were emailed (by AJG) to invite them to video record themselves via PowerPoint answering a series of pre-defined questions. Experts shared complete recordings, which were then formatted to create short engaging video clips.
Step 6 involved an expert review of, and feedback about, the toolkit following the revisions facilitated by workshop 3. Three categories of experts were recruited from the research team's network:
Individuals experienced in the development of web-based toolkits Osteoarthritis researchers Specific intervention content experts (e.g., medications or weight management)
Each expert was provided with a list of feedback topics, including perceived accuracy, comprehensiveness, usability, engagement and miscellaneous comments. Experts could provide feedback via a web-based survey link (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) (Supplementary Appendix D), email, text file, ZoomTM or pre-recorded audio. One research team member (AJG) reviewed all feedback to identify common themes and specific areas for improvement. Potential themes or areas for improvement were discussed by the research team, with action plans agreed upon before refinements were made to the toolkit and its resources.
Results
Stage (i): Understand and define
Stage (ii): Prototype
Summary of the initial TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self management toolkit prototype development.
Bell, E.C., Wallis, J.A., Crossley, K.M., Trivett, A and Barton, C.J. (2021). Patient Forgoes Knee Replacement Surgery by at Least 2 Years After Appropriate Nonsurgical Care Following Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Case Report. JOSPT cases. 1(1):21-26.
Ageberg, E. Link, A and Room, E.M (2010). Feasibility of neuromuscular training in patients with severe hip or knee OA: The individualized goal-based NEMEX-TJR training program. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 11 (126):1–7.
HONcode: Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct; NEMEX: Neuromuscular exercise program.
Stage (iii): Test and iterate
Co-design participant demographics.
* Median (range).
Workshop 1, held in June 2021, involved seven people with knee osteoarthritis, with a further two people providing feedback via individual web-based meetings (Table 2). Major feedback suggestions from workshop 1 and the subsequent toolkit revisions are presented in Table 3. Overarching feedback indicated that the content was appropriate, and the personalised guide-maker was novel. However, the toolkit was considered complicated, lacked inspiration for engagement, and was perceived to be too similar to other web-based sources of information. Numerous suggestions to improve usability and engagement were provided and addressed (Table 3). Screenshot examples of the revisions are presented in Supplementary Appendix F.
Summary of major feedback from workshop 1 leading to revisions in the TREK ‘My Knee’ toolkit.
FAQ: Frequently asked question.
(
Workshop 2, held in October 2021, involved seven health professionals, with a further two providing feedback via email (Table 2). The major feedback suggestions, including subsequent toolkit revisions, from workshop 2 are presented in Table 4. Overarching feedback indicated that the health professionals liked the personalised guide-maker, valued the lived experience resources, and were likely to use the toolkit in a therapist-facilitated learning format with patients. Possible improvements identified included navigation optimisation and content adaptation for diverse groups of people with knee osteoarthritis, particularly in relation to exercise therapy. Screenshot examples of revisions are presented in Supplementary Appendix G.
Summary of major feedback from workshop 2 leading to revisions in the TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit.
NEMEX: Neuromuscular exercise program.
(
Workshop 3, held in November 2021, involved six people with knee osteoarthritis (Table 2). Only one of the six participants was also involved in workshop 1. The major feedback suggestions, including subsequent toolkit revisions, from workshop 3 are presented in Table 5. Overarching feedback indicated that they liked the content within the toolkit, but navigation could be further improved. There were also suggestions about the name of the toolkit and how to best present video content. Screenshot examples of revisions are presented in Supplementary Appendix H.
Summary of major feedback from workshop 3 leading to revisions in the TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit.
TREK: Translating Research Evidence Knowledge.
Summary of major feedback from our expert opinion panel leading to revisions in the ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit.
NICE: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; BMI: body mass index.
Discussion
The TREK ‘My Knee’ toolkit was uniquely developed through comprehensive co-designed methods involving people with lived experience, health professionals and experts. This process led to a highly engaging multimedia platform, novel personalisation functions and specific content to help health professionals facilitate patient education. Stage (i) identified the need to create content and resources to dispel common misconceptions about osteoarthritis and to facilitate engagement with exercise therapy and weight management. The theory- and research-informed prototype created in Stage (ii) aims to promote active learning and enhance self-efficacy for, and engagement with, guideline-recommended first-line care. Co-design workshops and expert opinion review in Stage (iii) facilitated improvements in clarity, accuracy and usability. The ‘My Knee’ toolkit offers great potential to improve outcomes for people with knee osteoarthritis; however, further research is now needed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness in real-world settings.
Although Step 1 of our co-design process was unable to determine ‘what’ education content is most effective for people with knee osteoarthritis, 23 we did identify that education is more effective when provided alongside exercise therapy. 34 This evidence aligns with current guideline recommendations for first-line care3–6 and supports priorities identified by people with knee osteoarthritis 24 and physiotherapists 22 about receiving/providing education about exercise therapy in Step 3. Consequently, much of the toolkit's content addresses the importance of exercise therapy, and tools and resources to facilitate its implementation are provided. Workshop feedback in Step 5 further emphasised the desire for information and resources to facilitate exercise therapy, and informed subsequent toolkit edits. Feedback led to the creation of a ‘work-along’ exercise video and expansion of the exercise therapy decision-making tool to incorporate important exercise safety considerations. The information and resources available in the ‘My Knee’ toolkit may help to address the lack of accurate and clear information about, and tools to help implement, exercise therapy from other web-based resources. 21
People with knee osteoarthritis desire information about surgery, 24 yet online information about surgery is often inaccurate and misleading. 21 Content within the ‘My Knee’ toolkit aims to reinforce that surgery is considered third-line care and not required by most people with knee osteoarthritis. 42 Lived experience videos were developed to counter common misconceptions and to highlight that surgery may be avoided by engaging with first-line care including exercise therapy. A potential barrier to health professionals supporting implementation of first-line care is the lack of clarity about their role and perceived capability to provide weight-management advice.17,22,43,44 Content within the My Knee toolkit, including the personalised guide-maker feature, was co-created with an academic dietitian. This ensured the inclusion of evidence-informed resources to support health professionals who may lack the confidence to discuss weight management. 22 Considering the projected future global burden of obesity, 45 and the association of weight loss with improved knee osteoarthritis symptoms, 46 it is hoped the toolkit will promote the better provision of, and engagement with, interventions to support weight management.
Our co-design workshops highlighted the importance of avoiding information overload (i.e., too much), with failure to do so being a known limitation for similar web-based resources.28,29 Examples to guard against information overload that this feedback informed included increased use of videos and icon-based hyperlinks to convey content rather than text, creating frequently asked question sections to guide users to find relevant information, a dedicated exercise therapy resource page and an improved navigation bar. The ability of users to tailor their own personalised learning guide may also help to prevent information overload, with this feature being reported as strength of the ‘My Knee’ toolkit by workshop participants in Step 5. The diversity of resource formats (i.e., written materials, infographics and video resources) was also reported as a strength of the toolkit compared to similar resources28,29 and will help the toolkit to appeal to varied learning preferences. 47 Future revisions are likely to further improve the user experience and will be informed by similar co-designed research methods with other populations including rural populations, people with lower digital and health literacy and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
It is unclear if theory-based education interventions and websites result in better outcomes compared to those that are not theory-based. 23 However, considering the potential importance of theory in learning outcomes 41 and facilitating behaviour change, 48 we ensured theoretical principles of andragogy, 39 motivational interviewing 38 and self-efficacy 40 were considered and integrated where possible when developing the ‘My Knee’ toolkit. Creating a theory-informed web-based resource is challenging, as theoretical principles are most applicable to synchronous, in-person scenarios.38–40 Nonetheless, theoretical principles were used to inform content and refine tools to optimise the quality, engagement and personalisation of the learning experience (i.e., personalised guide-maker, quizzes and lived experience videos for modelling). Workshop feedback from people with knee osteoarthritis and from health professionals during Step 5 supported the value of this approach and the resulting resources.
Implications and future directions
The ‘My Knee’ toolkit and its resources create opportunities to enhance engagement with first-line care and self-management, which may ultimately improve clinical outcomes for people with knee osteoarthritis. However, research is needed to determine whether the ‘My Knee’ toolkit can improve the knowledge or self-efficacy of those using it. Additionally, feasibility and effectiveness testing of the ‘My Knee’ toolkit as both self-directed and therapist-facilitated resource are required and planned by our research team. Other research groups are also encouraged to consider using the ‘My Knee’ toolkit in trials providing patient education to people with knee osteoarthritis. In particular, the ‘My Knee’ toolkit offers opportunities to improve the implementation of theory-based education interventions in clinical trials, especially when being provided as a control condition. 23 A comparison of the ‘My Knee’ toolkit against other more passive or non-theory-based information or education interventions used in previous patient education clinical trials is also encouraged.
The ‘My Knee’ toolkit was not created with the intention of replacing health professional consultation. Rather, we hope that the ‘My Knee’ toolkit; (i) promotes guideline-recommended care and provides those using it as a self-directed resource with the information they need to make informed decisions about whether professional input is warranted and; (ii) can be used as a supplementary resource to enhance the education that health professionals provide. Further research to understand ‘how’ the ‘My Knee’ toolkit is best used to support care is warranted. This includes determining whether health professionals feel confident or capable of incorporating the toolkit into patient care, or whether people with knee osteoarthritis value an initial consultation with a health professional to co-navigate resources. Research to identify the content, resources or features most frequently used or valued by people with knee osteoarthritis and health professionals is also planned by our research team to facilitate future iterations and improvements. We also hope that respected evidence-based programmes for people with knee osteoarthritis such as GLA:D® 9 or Enabling Self-management and Coping with Arthritic Pain Using Exercise (ESCAPE-painTM) 49 consider signposting participants to the ‘My Knee’ toolkit for further reading and learning. To facilitate awareness and use of the ‘My Knee’ toolkit, we have drafted a dissemination and continual improvement plan (Supplementary Appendix J). The dissemination plan leverages upon co-design participants and their networks to help reach a broad audience of both people with knee osteoarthritis and health professionals.
Limitations related to how the ‘My Knee’ toolkit was developed should be considered. Although participants were recruited from a wide range of sources, the recruitment methods and samples were biased towards English-speaking people. Further, we did not measure digital literacy of our cohort, but our sample was all competent with using the internet, videoconferencing and email, meaning they may not represent all people with knee osteoarthritis consulting with physiotherapists. Notably, future research should consider involving CALD communities and people with varying health literacy levels to improve accessibility, as this is a known barrier to the use of such interventions. 29 This may include making content within the ‘My Knee’ toolkit accessible to non-English speaking populations, considering that knee osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability worldwide. 50 Involving a greater diversity of health professionals within Step 3 may have also identified differing education priorities and potentially increased the comprehensiveness and usability of the resource. For example, the volume of information about interventions such as medications and supplements may have been increased if education priorities were investigated with General Practitioners, pharmacists or dietitians. Our expert opinion review was also biased towards those known by the research team. Additional peer review of our content by other experts, health professionals and people living with knee osteoarthritis is encouraged, alongside the planned periodical review of content to facilitate regular updates to align the toolkit to the latest evidence and user needs.
Conclusion
We have outlined the three-stage, six-step process used to co-design the novel theory-informed TREK ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit. This web-based toolkit creates potential opportunities to enhance patient engagement with first-line care and self-management, which may improve clinical outcomes. It can be used independently by people with knee osteoarthritis, or in collaboration with a health professional. Future research will determine feasibility and effectiveness of the toolkit and inform its continual improvement.
Supplemental Material
sj-docx-1-dhj-10.1177_20552076231163810 - Supplemental material for Co-design of the web-based ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit for people with knee osteoarthritis
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-dhj-10.1177_20552076231163810 for Co-design of the web-based ‘My Knee’ education and self-management toolkit for people with knee osteoarthritis by Anthony J Goff, Danilo De Oliveira Silva, Allison M Ezzat, Kay M Crossley, Marcella F Pazzinatto, Christian J Barton and in Digital Health
Footnotes
Authors’ Note
Contributorship
Declaration of Conflicting interests
Ethical approval
Funding
Guarantor
Supplemental material
References
Supplementary Material
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