[Comparative assessement of the elderly females before total hip or knee replacements]

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common and burdensome illness in the elderly patients. It is the main cause of locomotor impairment and disability resulting in significant decrease of the quality of life (QL) in highly developed countries. Sf-36v2 questionnaire was standardized in the United States by J.E. Ware et al. in the years 1985-1992 and at present SF-36v2 is the most commonly used questionnaire for investigations in patients with various conditions. The aim: To compare two cohorts of post-menopausal female patients with the predominantly clinically active one-site advanced osteoarthritis of the hip and knee joint prior to the replacement surgery.

Material and methods: Two cohorts of fifty female postmenopausal patients aged from sixty to eighty were investigated. The inclusion criteria relied on sex, age and clinically single joint predominant OA disease prior to hip and knee joint replacement. The Polish version of SF-36v2 for the quality of life was accomplished by the patient under direct supervision of a trained nurse. The sets of obtained data were analyzed with the use of Statistica 10.0 (Shapiro-Wilk test, U - Mann-Whitney test, Spearmann, Kruskall-Wallis, Friedmann's ANOVA and Chi 2 Pearson). p <0.05 was regarded as significant.

Results: It was found that patients with advanced knee OA demonstrated significantly lower QL than these with hip OA in Vitality (p=0,004), Functioning in Social Roles (p=0,0001), General Health (p <0,000001) and Pain (p <0,000001). No significant differences within the cohorts were observed as the other scales were concerned (p >0,05). In the general assessment as for the QL in the Physical domain significant difference was found with lower scoring in the knee group (p=0.00001). In the assessment of the general QL two domains were considered -Physical and Mental Health. Highly significant difference was recorded for the Physical better in regard for hip OA (p <0,00001). In the Mental Health domain no significant difference was found (p=0,09).

Conclusions: 1. Quality of life of postmenopausal women with hip OA is predominantly lowered by the local disease whereas lower quality of life of these females with knee OA is related to the general poor health, low index of vitality and decrease of function in social functioning resulting from co-existence of chronic illnesses due to overweight and obesity. 2. Reduction of overweight or obesity in the group of patients with knee arthritis could improve their quality of life and general health.