ABOUT TIPTOE

Who is TIPTOE for?

The TIPTOE living well support package is designed for adults:

Aged 65+
Living in the community independently, or with carer support or in assisted living.
With knee and/or hip pain in the osteoarthritis affected joint, which is impacting upon daily living.
With at least one other long-term condition, such as; gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, frailty, widespread pain and/or clinically diagnosed depression.

What is the aim of the TIPTOE study?

The study aims to find out if a living well support package can help improve osteoarthritis symptoms and quality of life in people aged 65 years and older, who also have another medical condition.

What is involved in TIPTOE?

It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you decide to take part, you will be asked to complete some screening questions to check your suitability.

If you are not suitable for the study, nothing will change and your care will not be affected.

If you are suitable to take part in the study, you will be asked to sign a consent form. You will then be asked to answer some questions about your osteoarthritis, other medical conditions and how you feel.

You will then be placed by chance into one of two groups:

Living well support group

Usual care group

A group of people receiving the TIPTOE living well support package.

The package includes 6 one-to-one sessions with a trained healthcare professional over a 6 month period.

You will also receive a copy of the “Living Well Workbook” with more self-help techniques, advice and stories.

We encourage people in this group to be joined by a nominated support person of their choice, such as a family member, friend or carer, though this is optional.

A group of people continuing to receive usual care by the NHS.

Your usual care which you currently receive from the NHS for your osteoarthritis and other medical conditions will continue as usual.

If you are allocated to the usual care group, you will receive the “Living Well Workbook” after you finish taking part in the study.

After 6 months, you will be asked to answer the same questions as you did before being placed into your group.

After 12 months, you will again be asked to answer the same questions as you did after 6 months.

We are running this study because we do not know if the new TIPTOE living well support package is better than usual care, so taking part may not be of direct benefit to you. It should, however, help us to provide better care for others in the future.

Any information that we collect about you will be kept safe. Your name and any other identifiable information will not go in any reports, presentations of publications.

Further information

If you are interested in taking part in the TIPTOE study, please read the Participant Information Sheet. During the registration process you will be asked to confirm that you have read this document.

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET

Register

Once you have read the Participant Information Sheet, click the button below to check that you are eligible to take part in the TIPTOE study and to complete the registration process.