Assessment of quality of life in patients with lower limb osteoarthritis

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease, which directly influences individual’s quality of life (QOL). In current study, we decided to assess the QOL in patients with lower limb OA to find an association between patients’ QOL and demographic factors.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 203 OA patients aged over 50 years and 200 healthy controls matched with regard to age and gender were included. Short Form 12-item Health Survey (SF-12) was used to evaluate QOL.

Results: The mean±standard deviation (SD) age of OA patients and control group was 69.82±11.49 and 68.18±10.54 years, respectively. 63% of patients and 56% of control group were females. Most of SF-12 domains including physical functioning, role physical, general health, social functioning, and role emotional were significantly lower in OA patients compared with the control group (P<0.05). Moreover, bodily pain domain was significantly higher in OA patients compared with the control group (P=0.038). There was a considerable correlation between most SF-12 domains with age and sex (P<0.05); whereas considerable correlation was just noticed between role physical domain with body mass index (BMI) (P<0.001). Additionally, Vitality considerably was associated with marital status (P=0.038).

Conclusion: QOL in lower limb OA patients was compared with healthy subjects and this impairment was in association with some demographic factors.