'If you can't help me, so help me God I will cut it off myself…' The experience of living with knee pain: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Objective: To identify and explore the feelings and experiences of people living with knee pain as a precursor to exploring how this might contribute to improved care in the future. Design: The qualitative meta-synthesis was undertaken in three parts (1) a systematic search of the literature, (2) a critical appraisal of the relevant studies and (3) meta-aggregation of the findings from the selected studies. A qualitative meta-synthesis is a process that enables researchers to answer a specific research question by combining and summarising a variety of qualitative sources. This was undertaken using a contextualist approach which acknowledges different realities exist but tries to determine an underlying ‘truth’. Setting: The participants from the selected studies were from a range of settings and ethnic groups, and cultural backgrounds. Participants: There were nine articles included in the meta-synthesis. Articles focused on the experiences of surgery, return to sport, or other aspects of care were excluded. Results: No articles were excluded following critical appraisal. Eleven categories were identified from 55 findings which resulted in two synthesised findings being identified: knee pain affects every aspect of life and Searching for the best way forward. Limitations: Articles were largely limited to older adults living with osteoarthritis. Many of the findings did not report demographic data. Only English language studies were included. Conclusion: Many people living with knee pain struggle to adapt to living with knee pain and this is often exacerbated by a lack of knowledge and available information to help them plan for the future. PROSPERO No: CRD42017070227.