Impact of Age, Gender, Disease, and Health Status on Physical and Psychological Correlates of Knee Osteoarthritis Disability

ABSTRACT

To identify the differential impact of selected physical, psychological and demographic variables on pain and disability experienced by adults with moderate knee osteoarthritis, and the clinical implications of these observations. Methods. Selected demographic, physical and psychological attributes of 100 adults with unilateral or bilateral knee osteoarthritis recorded on a single test occasion using validated tools were subjected to comparison and correlational analyses. Results. There were several significant (p < 0.05) associations between pain scores and walking capacity and gender, age, body mass, medical comorbidities, extent of depression, and perceived exertion when walking. Specifically, pain was correlated with body mass and depression. Depression scores, which were higher for those who were heavier, those younger than 60 years of age, those with medical comorbidities, and for men, correlated with overall disease impact. Other findings were that more subjects were overweight than of normal weight; disability was greater for women than men, and those younger than 60 years of age had more pain than those older than 60 years of age. Conclusion. The presentation of knee osteoarthritis is not uniform, and may be impacted differentially by age, gender, body mass, physical and mental health status.

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