Characterizing patients' expectations in hip and knee osteoarthritis

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Rheumatology
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Conflicting findings exist regarding sociodemographic and clinical factors influencing surgical outcome expectations.
• Understanding patient expectations is crucial for managing treatment outcomes in osteoarthritis surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• Identify and characterize subgroups of osteoarthritis patients based on their expectations for surgical outcomes.
• Examine sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with these expectations.

Main Methods:

• Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify patient subgroups.
• Linear regression analyses examined associations between sociodemographic/clinical factors and expectations.
• 287 hip and knee osteoarthritis patients completed questionnaires post-consultation.

Main Results:

• Higher expectations were linked to younger age, male sex, and greater functional disability.
• Three distinct patient subgroups were identified for both hip and knee osteoarthritis.
• Subgroups significantly differed in reported pain, symptoms, and functional disability levels.

Conclusions:

• Osteoarthritis patients with higher expectations often experience more pain and functional limitations.
• These expectations are concentrated in areas like pain relief and improved walking ability.
• Findings can inform physicians in discussing and aligning patient expectations with realistic treatment outcomes.