The Research Project“A study to assess the effectiveness of Isometric
exercises on level of pain among osteoarthritis patients in selected villages at
Virudhunagar”. It is conducted as partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree
of Master of science in nursing at Sri.K.Ramachandran Naidu College of Nursing,
Thirunelveli under the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R Medical University, Chennai during
the year August 2016. OBJECTIVES: To assess the pre and post-test level of pain among patients with osteoarthritis in
experimental group and control group. To compare the pre-test and post-test level of pain among osteoarthritis patients
in experimental group and control group. To compare the effectiveness of isometric exercise on level of pain among
osteoarthritis patients in experimental group and control group. To associate the pre-test level of pain among patients with osteoarthritis in
experimental group and control group with their selected demographic variables.
(Age, Sex, Body mass index, Marital Status, Education, Occupation, Dietary
pattern, Duration of illness and Duration of treatment). HYPOTHESES: All hypotheses are tested at 0.05 levels : H1: Mean post-test level of pain among osteoarthritis patients in experimental
group will be significantly lower than the mean pre-test level of pain in
experimental group.
H2: Mean post-test level of pain among osteoarthritis patients in control group will
be significantly lower than the mean pre-test level of pain in control group.
H3: Mean post-test level of pain among osteoarthritis patients in experimental
group will be significantly lower than the mean post-test level of pain in control
group.
H4: There will be a significant association between the pre-test level of pain among
Patients with osteoarthritis in experimental and control group with their
selected demographics variables. (Age, Sex, Body mass index, Marital Status,
Education, Occupation, Dietary pattern, Duration of illness and Duration of
treatment)
The study was based on the CIPP (Context, Input, Process, Product Model).
The quantitative approach was used for this study. The study was conducted in
Zaminkollankondan and Avarampatti village in Virudhunagar. The design adopted for
this study was Quasi experimental Pre-test and Post-test control group design to
assess the effectiveness of Isometric exercises on level of pain among osteoarthritis
patients. Non probability purposive sampling technique was used to select 30 samples
for experimental group from zaminkollankondan village and the same method was
used to select 30 samples for control group from avarampatti.
The data collection tool used for the study was modified Lequence
observational checklist for osteoarthritis to identify the severity of osteoarthritis. The
content validity of the tool was obtained from four nursing experts and one medical
experts in the field of medical and surgical nursing. The reliability of the tool(r=0.9)
was established by test and retest method by using Karl Pearson’s correlation
coefficient.The tool was accepted as reliable by the clinical experts. Pilot study was
conducted to find out the feasibility and the data analysis was done.
Data collection was done by using the modified Lequence observational
checklist to identifying the severity of osteoarthritis and pre and post-test level of pain
was measured by Numerical pain intensity rating scale for experimental and control
group. The data obtained were analyzed both in terms of descriptive and inferential
statistics.
FINDINGS: Majority of patients 10 (33.3%) were between the age group of 30 - 40years in
experimental group. Where as in control group majority of patients 11(37%)
were in the age group of 41-50 years. With respect to sex classification, majority of patients 15 (50%) were female
and 15 (50%) were male in the experimental group, whereas in control group
majority of patients 16(53.3%) were female. With regard to Body Mass Index (BMI), majority of the patients 16(53%)
were belongs to Overweight, whereas in control group, majority of patients 11
(37%) were belongs to normal weight and Overweight category. With regard to marital status, majority of patients 17(57%) were belongs to
married in experimental group, where as in control group majority of patients
22(73%) were in unmarried group. Based on the educational status, majority of patients 12(40%) were belongs to
no formal education in experimental group where as in control group majority
of patients 13(44%) were completed primary education. With respect to occupation majority of patients 16(53%) were belongs to
sedentary worker in experimental group and control group also majority of
patients 13(44%) were in sedentary worker. With regard to dietary habits classification, majority of patients 21 (70%) were
belongs vegetarianin the experimental group, whereas in control group
majority of patients 26(87%) were non vegetarian. With regard to duration of illness,majority of patients 12(40%) were in more
than 1 year to 2 years of illness, whereas in control group also the majority of
patients were in 14(46%) were in more than 1 year to 2 years of illness. With regard to duration of treatment, majority of patients 16(53%) were in
more than 1 year to 2 years of treatment, whereas in control group also the
majority of patients were in 16(54%) were in the category of 6months -1year
of treatment. With regard to the pre and post-test level of pain among experimental group,
it was found that the pre-test mean was 6.17, standard deviation 2.07 and mean
difference was 2.97 and post-test level of mean value was 3.2 standard
deviation 2.35 and it was found that the mean difference was 2.97 and the t
value was 7.77 indicating that the table value is highly than calculated value.It
was found that there is significant reduction in post-test level of pain in the
experimental group than the pre-test level of pain at p<0.05 level. With regard to the pre and post-test level of pain among control group, it was
found that the pre-test 4.06 with standard deviation of 2.40 and the post-test
mean value was 5.93 standard deviation 2.63.The mean difference was -1.87
and calculated ‘t’ value was 2.87 which showed that there was no significant
reduction in post-test level of pain than the pre-test test level of pain among
osteoarthritis patients in control group at p < 0.05 levels. Hence hypothesis
was rejected. With regard to the post-test level of pain among experimental group it was
found that the mean value is 3.2 and the standard deviation is 2.35, where as in
control group mean value is 5.93 and standard deviation is 2.63 and the ‘t’
value was 7.01, it shows that there is significant reduction in post-test level of
pain in experimental group than post-test level of pain in control group at
p<0.05 level. RECOMMENDATIONS: Similar study can be conducted with large samples for better generalisation. An explorative study can be done at various settings like in hospitals or in
orthoclinics to identify factors influencing osteoarthritis among elderly people. A similar study can be conducted to find out the effectiveness of other
therapies like yoga and muscle relaxation technique. A comparative study can be done between aerobic exercise and isometric
exercise for osteoarthritis. A study can be conducted to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of nurses
regarding isometric exercises for osteoarthritis. As a nurse working in hospital as well as in community has a vital role to
provide effective nursing care for the patients. The nurses are need to develop their
knowledge and skills in management of osteoarthritis by assessing the pain and
providing care to the osteoarthritis patients, and to use wide variety of interventions in
order to reduce pain in such patients. CONCLUSION: From the result of the study, it was concluded that, rendering Isometric
exercises to the osteoarthritis patient was effectivess in reduction of knee pain.
Therefore the investigator felt that the importance of isometric exercise for
osteoarthritis patient used to reduce the level of pain
