Health‐related quality of life and health service use among older adults with osteoarthritis

Abstract

Objective. To examine the relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and health service use among older adults with osteoarthritis (OA). Methods. Subjects were 9,043 Medicare-enrolled survey respondents with a prior International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code for OA. Analyses examined the relationship of 5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HRQOL items (general health, mental health, pain, activity limitation, and sleep) to physician visits, prescription analgesic or antiinflammatory use, and arthroplasty during 1 year of followup. Results. In analyses controlling for demographic and health-related variables, greater pain frequency was associated with increased odds of visiting a physician, using analgesic or antiinflammatory drugs, and having arthroplasty (P < 0.001). Poorer general health was associated with increased odds of analgesic or antiinflammatory use but decreased odds of arthroplasty (P < 0.01). More days of activity limitation and poor mental health were associated with decreased odds of analgesic or antiinflammatory use (P < 0.01). Conclusion. These HRQOL variables, especially pain frequency, can be valuable tools for estimating future health care use among older adults with OA.

Exercise and Manual Physiotherapy Arthritis Research Trial (EMPART) for Osteoarthritis of the Hip: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Hip osteoarthritis (OA) is a painful and disabling condition which can impact on everyday activities and quality of life 1,2 . A lifetime prevalence of 25.3% has been reported 3 and this is associated with increasing age.…”

The effectiveness of nurse-led care in people with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review

“…RA has a significant effect on patients especially social functioning and energy levels, limiting their involvement in valued activities (Dominick et al, 2004). Since the quality of life and fatigue result from individual studies, there is not enough evidence to make overall conclusions.…”

Pain as a mediator of sleep problems in arthritis and other chronic conditions

“…There is growing evidence that sleep is affected as a consequence of physical health, with poor health precipitating or contributing to existing sleep difficulties (7)(8)(9)(10). Arthritis has been found to be associated with sleep problems in a number of studies, although these studies have mainly been conducted on small patient populations and have tended to focus on inflammatory forms of the disease (8,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21).…”