Correlation of the Radiographic Grading of Knee Osteoarthritis With Physical Function but Not Emotional Quality of Life Scores

Background Multiple studies have shown that symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA) weakly correlate with the radiographic severity of the disease. Our objective was to determine possible correlations between the radiographic severity of knee OA and clinical manifestations such as disability, pain scores, and emotional health. Methods A retrospective review of registry data of 305 patients with knee OA was collected. The Kellgren-Lawrence and Ahlbäck classifications of radiographic knee OA were computed. These were correlated with the severity of functional limitations measured using the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Knee Society Score (KSS), and Oxford Knee Score (OKS). Statistical analysis was conducted with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0 (Released 2013; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant. Results There were no differences in BMI, gender, or operative site between all grades. There were significant differences in KSS Function scores between grade 2/3 patients and grade 4 patients. There were significant differences in OKS and SF-36 Physical Function between grade 2 and grade 4 patients. When comparing the loss of joint space with the functional scores, there were no statistically significant correlations. Conclusion Our study shows that increased radiological severity of knee OA was associated with increased limitation in the ability of patients to carry out their usual physical function. However, there was no significant correlation between radiological findings and non-tangible domains such as mental health, social functioning, and emotional role functions.