Patient characteristics associated with a poor response to non-surgical multidisciplinary management of knee osteoarthritis: a multisite prospective longitudinal study in an advanced practice physiotherapist-led tertiary service

Objectives To explore patient characteristics recorded at the initial consultation associated with a poor response to non-surgical multidisciplinary management of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in tertiary care.Design Prospective multisite longitudinal study.Setting Advanced practice physiotherapist-led multidisciplinary orthopaedic service within eight tertiary hospitals.Participants 238 patients with KOA.Primary and secondary outcome measures Standardised measures were recorded in all patients prior to them receiving non-surgical multidisciplinary management in a tertiary hospital service across multiple sites. These measures were examined for their relationship with a poor response to management 6 months after the initial consultation using a 15-point Global Rating of Change measure (poor response (scores −7 to +1)/positive response (scores+2 to+7)). Generalised linear models with binomial family and logit link were used to examine which patient characteristics yielded the strongest relationship with a poor response to management as estimated by the OR (95% CI).Results Overall, 114 out of 238 (47.9%) participants recorded a poor response. The odds of a poor response decreased with higher patient expectations of benefit (OR 0.74 (0.63 to 0.87) per 1/10 point score increase) and higher self-reported knee function (OR 0.67 (0.51 to 0.89) per 10/100 point score increase) (p