Does Less Pain Predict Better Quality of Life among Malaysian Patients with Mild-Moderate Knee Osteoarthritis?

This study aims to identify the relationship between knee functional status and Health-Related QoL (HRQoL) in mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients and to ascertain which subdomain of knee functional status best predicts good HRQoL. A cross-sectional study was conducted in an orthopaedic clinic of a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. Patients aged 40-75 years old with mild-moderate primary knee OA were recruited. The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and SF-36 questionnaires were used to measure knee functional status and HRQoL, respectively. Subdomains of KOOS include "function in daily living", "function in recreational activities", "pain", "symptom", and "knee-specific quality of life". Subdomains for SF-36 are Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS). Overall, 290 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria of the study, with a mean age of 66.8 years old (+/- 7.06). Majority were female (57.6%) and Malay (79.7%). The relationships between all KOOS and HRQoL subdomains were significant. "Pain" contributed most towards better physical HRQoL ((PCS) Adj. B (95% CI); 0.063 (0.044, 0.169)), while "function in daily living" contributed most towards better mental HRQoL ((MCS) Adj. B (95% CI); 0.624 (0.478, 0.769)). Thus, better HRQoL was related to better pain control and improved "function in daily living" in these patients.