Do Indian Researchers Consider Functioning Issues of Lower Extremity Osteoarthritis: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Lower extremity osteoarthritis (LEOA) is a noncommunicable disease with an increasing burden globally, especially the developing countries like India. Understanding the functioning issue is needed to address individuals’ daily problems. Knowing how Indian researchers consider functioning will aid in understanding the current research trend. This scoping review describes the nature and extent to which the Indian researchers considered the functioning issues of LEOA individuals and linked them with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) categories. We conducted an electronic database search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Pedro for Indian studies related to the functional issue of LEOA. Keeping the standard of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses- extension for scoping reviews (ScR) guidelines, we identified 102 related articles and included 28 that match the selection criteria. We observed a limited focus on functioning issues by Indian researchers. The researchers mainly rely on functional outcome measures while considering the functioning issue of LEOA. Most Western sociocultural influence outcome measures used by the studies were linked with activity limitation and participation restriction of ICF categories only. There is an urgent need for Indian researchers across professions to employ the ICF as a conceptual framework to understand and address the functioning issues associated with LEOA comprehensively.