Quality of Life among Older Adults with Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis now accounts for 55% of all arthritis related hospitalizations. Currently in the United States, 37.2 million Whites, 4.6 million Blacks, and 3.1 million Hispanic adults are living with OA. As the prevalence of OA increases, limitations to physical function also tend to increase. Osteoarthritis of the knee is the most significant source of pain in older adults and is one of the five leading causes of disability among this group of older adults. Osteoarthntis is a major cause of disability in older adults and knee OA is more likely to result in disability than OA of any other joint. However, the prevalence of OA at all joint sites increases progressively with age, which is the most frequent risk factor for the disease. Eighty percent of individuals with OA have some degree of limitation in physical function, and 25% cannot perform activities of daily living such as climbing stairs, bending, dressing, or bathing. Osteoarthritis may result not only in changes in physical function but also in symptoms, including pain, fatigue, and depressive symptoms, and poorer quality of life. Disease progression may lead to social isolation, a sense of hopelessness, and loss of control. Worsening symptoms may affect individuals’ quality of life and their ability to remain independent. Quality of life (QOL) is very important issue, nowadays is defined as encompassing major areas of functioning in the physical, psychological and social realms. it is acceptable state of physical, mental, social and emotional health as determined by the individual. Quality of life (QOL) for adults is greatly influenced by their life style, culture, education, family strength and integration into community especially in case of osteoarthritis. This descriptive study was conducted in non-governmental associations to study the quality of life among older adult with osteoarthritis. Methodological exploration with interview of existing data from a convenience sample of older patients with OA of the knee was used. An Structured interviewing questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographics containing two parts: Part (1) Socio-demographic variables of the study subjects as gender, age, marital status and educational level which present in questions from 1 to 7 and Part (2) Health condition variables; medical history related to osteoarthritis, duration of disease, complications, regularity of treatment, family history, presence of chronic illness. which present in questions from 8 to 48. Physical, Psychological, Social, Independence, Environmental, Spiritual analyses were used to identify domains of QOL. Basic descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, and standard deviations were calculated for the analyses. Data entry and analysis were done by IBM computer using the Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS). The study consisted of 100 older adults with OA of the knee. The ages of the sample ranged from 60 to 75 years, with a mean age of 72 (SD = 11.8) years. In relation to educational level 31% were university education, as regarding previous occupation 48% of them were governmental employee, as observed 84 % of study sample have enough income and 72 % of them income resources from retirement pensions. Participants were mostly female (58%). On average, 96% almost all of the older adult with osteoarthritis had moderate quality of life in relation to physical domain, the majority of the older adult with osteoarthritis (74 %) had moderate quality of life in relation to psychological domain, the arthritic elderly client (68%) had moderate quality of life in relation to social domain, more than half of the study sample (63 %) were had moderate quality of life in relation to level of independence domain, the majority of the study sample (97%) had moderate quality of life in relation to environmental domain and near half of the study sample (47%) had accepted quality of life in relation to spiritual domain, in relation to general quality of life 86% of the study sample had moderate quality of life. QOL is significantly correlated with duration of disease, age of the patients, educational level, hobbies and monthly income also the percentage of females affected with OA was higher than males but with no statistically significant difference.