Health-related quality of life in osteoarthritis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Osteoarthritis (OA) patients and controls. A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE from database inception to 7 January 2020. Random effect model was performed to summarize the scores of each domain and the forest plot was used to compare the scores of OA patients with healthy controls. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore the source of heterogeneity. Statistical analyses were executed using Review Manager (version 5.1). In total, six studies were included in this study, including 7094 patients with OA and 12 100 healthy controls, which were all reliable to summarize the scores of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Meta-analyses found that pooled mean HRQoL score for the SF-36 each domain (physical function, physical role function, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, emotional role function, mental health) was lower in patients with OA than in healthy controls, especially the score in the dimension of physical role function. OA have a substantial impact HRQoL. HRQoL is a significant component of measuring overall health, which contributes to formulate successful self-disease management plan, patient-centered care, and develop effective interventions target confidence.