Determinants of pain, disability, health-related quality of life and physical performance in patients with knee osteoarthritis awaiting total joint arthroplasty

AbstractPurpose: In patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis awaiting knee arthroplasty, to measure associations between several selected determinants and pain, disability, health-related quality of life and physical performance.Material and methods: Validated self-reported measures were collected: (1) Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, (2) Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) and (3) Short-Form 36 (SF-36). Physical performance was also assessed with four validated performance tests. Demographic, socioeconomic, psychosocial and clinical characteristics of the participants were also measured. Multivariate regression analyses were used to evaluate potential associations.Results: Higher fear-avoidance beliefs, greater comorbidities, psychological distress and use of a walking aid were significantly associated with worse pain, function or HRQOL (p < 0.05) and explained 12%–35% of the variances of the self-reported measure scores. Pretest pain and change in pain during postte...