Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To study the quality of life (QoL) of patients with osteoarthritis (OA), and how it changes depending on the clinical features of the disease and the psychological characteristics of the patients.
Methods We examined 30 patients with OA prior and after treatment. For better comparisons, a control group was set up, which comprised of 30 residents of Volgograd city, in the same age range and sex and who did not suffer from serious somatic diseases. QoL was studied using the questionnaire “SF-36” (Ware JE, 1993).
Results The QoL scores on all scales of the SF-36 questionnaire, in patients with OA were significantly lower than in the control group (p<0.05). This showed the lowest scores in QoL osteoarthritis patients ever had before treatment. The physical activity in patients with OA was considerably affected due to the physical (p<0.001) and role functioning (RF, RP) (p<0.001), as well as indicators of somatic pain (BP) (p<0.01). Factors that significantly impaired the physical component of QoL in patients with OA were: age of patients, stage of disease, the severity of joint pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS), and presence of clinically manifested anxiety (p<0.05). Factors that significantly impaired social and psychological component of quality of life in OA patients were: stage and duration of the disease and increased functional insufficiency of the joints (p<0.05). By improving the physical components of health (physical and role functioning, somatic pain) and psychological components (role emotional functioning, mental health) (p<0.05), therapeutic measures significantly had a positive impact on the basic parameters of QoL in patients with OA. Role physical (RP) and role emotional (RE) functioning significantly changed by more than 42% (p<0.001). The regularities were significantly associated with decreasing functional failure of the joints, decrease in the intensity of joint pain in VAS and decrease in ESR (p<0.05).
Conclusions Thus, after treatment, patients with OA had a significant improvement in physical health, noted by a reduction in pain and physical limitations, and, as a consequence, improved performance. The effectiveness of therapy in the hospital environment contributed in the formation of a positive subjective assessment of the health status in patients with OA.
Disclosure of Interest None declared