Subjective Well-Being and Self-Reported Health in Osteoarthritis Patients Before and After Arthroplasty

Abstract

The main aim of the current study is to examine the changes in the components of subjective well-being (SWB) over time in patients with osteoarthritis who have undergone total hip or knee replacement surgery (arthroplasty). We are also interested in determining whether pre-operative ratings of self-reported health (SRH) status, as well as change in health status, can serve as predictors for postoperative levels of SWB. To this end, 50 participants who had been admitted to a hospital for arthroplasty completed the measures twice-first at the clinic one day before the surgery, and then at home approximately 4.5 months after the surgery. Despite the fact that there were substantial improvements in participants' health and physical functioning after the arthroplasty, there were no changes in their ratings of general SRH, life satisfaction (LS), or negative affect (NA). The only change in SWB scores was in the level of positive affect (PA), which was significantly higher after surgery compared with the pre-operative measurement. LS, NA, and PA scores after arthroplasty were differentially predicted by health ratings, showing that, it is the cognitive-evaluative component of SWB (i.e., LS) that is mostly responsible for the association between general SRH and SWB while affective components (i.e., NA and PA) are primarily related to more specific health indicators. Our findings can assist physicians in their efforts to provide more realistic expectations for their patients undergoing surgery in terms of the physical and psychological outcome.

The Role of the Five–factor Personality Traits in General Self–rated Health

“…SWB has, in many studies, also been found to be associated with physical (not to mention mental) health (see Friedman & Kern, , for a review). However, this association seems to be much stronger when self‐reported measures of health are used (George & Landerman, ; Okun, Stock, Haring, & Witter, ) and weakens significantly when some indicators of objective health status, such as clinically verified health data or objectively measured health indicators, are examined (Angner, Ray, Saag, & Allison, ; Brief, Butcher, George, & Link, ; Okun & George, ; Realo, Johannson, & Schmidt, ; Watten, Vassend, Myhrer, & Syversen, ). Thus, happy people consistently report themselves to be healthier than those who are not so happy (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, ).…”

“…Despite several prospective longitudinal studies that have shown that various types of SWB predict health and longevity, it is still possible that there is a third variable that influences both SWB and health and creates a 'false causal' association between them. Moreover, it cannot be excluded that it is in fact SRH that causally contributes to SWB (Gana et al, 2013) or that health and SWB are reciprocally related and influence each other over the life course (Realo et al, 2015).…”

Can a ‘rewards-for-exercise app’ increase physical activity, subjective well-being and sleep quality? An open-label single-arm trial among university staff with low to moderate physical activity levels

“…The present study examines whether the use of the Sweatcoin application in a work environment increases physical activity levels among physically ‘inactive’ to ‘moderately active’ employees, and whether this further leads to wider improvements in their sleep quality and SWB. Earlier research has suggested that when examining the associations between SWB and health-related variables, the components of SWB should be assessed as distinct constructs [ 41 ] and for this reason, we examined three components of SWB—life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect—separately in the following analyses, so that we would not lose any valuable information about SWB by merging them (cf. [ 13 ]).…”

Cross-sectional analysis of self-reported sedentary behaviors and chronic knee pain among South Korean adults over 50 years of age in KNHANES 2013-2015

“…The etiology of chronic knee pain is multifactorial and complex, and several factors, including demographic, clinical, and psychological factors collectively contribute to its severity [9]. In the 2010 National Health and Nutrition Survey in Korea, the likelihood of chronic knee pain was associated with age, sex, low education, depression, obesity, and radiographic knee OA grade [10].…”