Fig. 4

Sankey diagram visualizing the management of knee OA per consultation. Note: The Sankey diagram shows nodes as actions taken by the GP during the consultation. The width of the flows between two nodes represents the numbers (i.e. proportion of all consultations with this management type) and pattern of the sequence from one action to another (e.g. medication prescription or advice followed by referral to secondary care). The first node represents the management in the first consultation (N = 503 patients). The second node represents the management in the second consultation (N = 432) and the third node represents the management in the third consultation (N = 273). Percentages are based on the management in the first consultation. Patients could be treated using more than one management modality. The percentage is based on the total number of management events rather than the total number patients. For example, 33.4% of the patients received diagnostic work-up such as an X-ray on the first consultation (see first node in purple on the left). Of those, most patients received advice on the second consultation (see second node in green in the middle), followed by no consultation (see third node in grey on the right). See Supplementary Table 4 for more details of the management types