Assessment of quality oflife in patients with early knee osteoarthritis using SF-36

Abstract

Objective. To study quality of life (QL) measures in pts with early knee osteoarthritis (OA) with SF-36. Material and methods. 102 outpatient pts with early knee OA were included. Mean age was 48,3± 12,7 years, mean OA duration - 10,5±7,9 months. 33,3% of pts had 0, 42,6% - I, 20,5% - II stage of knee OA. According to sonographic examination of knee joints the patients were divided into two groups: group I without synovitis and group II — with synovitis of the knee joints. 50 healthy volunteers were included in control group. QL was assessed with SF-36. Results. All QL measures in early knee OA pts were lower than in control. There was significant difference of physical functioning, role physical functioning (RPF), social functioning (SF) and role emotional functioning (REF) (p<0,05). Pts of group II had significantly lower RPF and REF than group I pts (p<0,05). Conclusion. QL of pts with knee OA decrease at early stage of the disease what requires administration of proper therapy as soon as possible after verification of the diagnosis.

Keywords

• early knee osteoarthritis
• quality of life
• sf-36 questionnaire