Epidemiology of knee osteoarthritis using Kellgren and Lawrence scale in Indian population

Osteoarthritis knee is one of the most prevalent conditions of knee in elder age group of population. Its causes pain, disability in geriatric population of society. Longer life expectancy is responsible for increase in osteoarthritis knee. K-L scale is well known scale of radiographic OA knee. This study was done to find prevalence of OA knee in Indian population of older than 40 years using K-L scale.

The study was a community based cross sectional study. The target population was from 5 metropolis, 5 cities near the metropolis, 5 towns and 20 villages from blocks of these towns. i.e. 5 sample groups were covered. Sample size n = 4680 which was further divided into 5 sites equally (936 from each site). This was rounded to a sample of 1000 from each site. This evaluation study was conducted using the household as the primary sampling unit for the quantitative survey. The respondents for the study were above 40 years. Quantitative data was collected using structured questionnaire and X-Ray Investigation. OA was graded using the Kellgren and Lawrence scale. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software. Frequencies and percentages were calculated to find the prevalence of OA. Chi-Square test was used to find the association of OA with various factors.

The present study shows a prevalence of 28.7% of OA in the overall sample. This varies slightly in the individual states - Agra (35.5%), Bangalore (26.6%), Kolkata (33.7%), Dehradun (27.2%), and Pune (21.7%).OA prevalence was found to be more in participants who used western toilet (42.1%), in sedentary people (82.9%), in females and in obese.

This study has evidenced that there is a large percentage of sub-threshold population. i.e. K-L grade 1 which is considered as border-line or doubt-full as far as OA diagnosis. Awareness of OA should be initiated at community level, which is needed for prevention of OA at early age.