↓ Skip to main content

Spa therapy for elderly: a retrospective study of 239 older patients with osteoarthritis

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Biometeorology, January 2016
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
1 X user

Citations

dimensions_citation
28 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
59 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Spa therapy for elderly: a retrospective study of 239 older patients with osteoarthritis
Published in
International Journal of Biometeorology, January 2016
DOI 10.1007/s00484-016-1138-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Mine Karagülle, Sinan Kardeş, Rian Dişçi, Hatice Gürdal, Müfit Zeki Karagülle

Abstract

Very few studies tested the effectiveness of spa therapy in older patients with osteoarthritis. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of spa therapy in patients aged 65 years and older with generalized, knee, hip, and cervical and lumbar spine osteoarthritis. In an observational retrospective study design at the Medical Ecology and Hydroclimatology Department of Istanbul Medical Faculty, we analyzed the records of 239 patients aged over 65 years with the diagnosis of all types of osteoarthritis who were prescribed a spa therapy course in some spa resorts in Turkey between 7 March 2002 and 31 December 2012. They travelled to a spa resort where they stayed at a thermal spa hotel and followed the usual therapy packages for 2 weeks. Patients were assessed by an experienced physician within a week before the spa journey and within a week after the completion of the spa therapy. Compared with baseline in whole sample, statistically significant improvements were observed in pain (visual analog scale, VAS), patient and physician global assessments (VAS), Health Assessment Questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI), Lequesne algofunctional index (LAFI) for knee, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities index (WOMAC), Waddell disability index (WDI), and Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPAD). According to Outcome Measures in Rheumatology-Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OMERACT-OARSI) Set of Responder Criteria, responder rate were 63.8 % (51/80) in generalized, 52 % (13/25) in knee, 50 % (2/4) in hip, 66.7 % (8/12) in lumbar, and 100 % (6/6) in cervical osteoarthritis subgroups. Spa therapy improved pain and physical functional status in older patients with osteoarthritis, especially generalized osteoarthritis and multiple joint osteoarthritis with involvement of knee. This improvement was clinically important in majority of the patients. To confirm the results of this preliminary study, there is a need of a randomized controlled clinical study comparing spa therapy with usual care in the elderly population with osteoarthritis.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 59 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 59 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 9 15%
Student > Bachelor 7 12%
Professor 4 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 7%
Other 3 5%
Other 9 15%
Unknown 23 39%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 14 24%
Medicine and Dentistry 13 22%
Social Sciences 2 3%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 2%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1 2%
Other 4 7%
Unknown 24 41%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 April 2017.
All research outputs
#20,413,129
of 22,963,381 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Biometeorology
#1,192
of 1,298 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#334,358
of 397,456 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Biometeorology
#18
of 24 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,963,381 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,298 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.1. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 397,456 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 24 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.