A study on knee joint osteoarthritis among the women aged above 40 years, residing in the urban field practice area at tertiary care centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease. Prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is reported to increase in females during premenopausal age and remains high throughout menopause. The Indian elderly population has increased to 8.6% in 2011 census, with life expectancy of 68.2 years. This has led Indian women to live with problem of osteoarthritis for long time as compared to other countries. Osteoarthritis is also associated with decreased physical activity and in turn affecting health related quality of life. Hence this study is taken up to estimate the prevalence of osteoarthritis and to assess the treatment seeking behavior of women in the community. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted on 120 women above the age of 40 years from January to March 2015 in urban field practice area of BMCRI. Data collection was done by house to house visit. Information was collected by using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The estimated prevalence of knee osteoarthritis among women aged 40 years and above was 55% (66). Out of 66 women who had osteoarthritis 68.2% were currently on treatment. We also found that 65.2% (43) of the women had difficulty in doing daily routine activities. Conclusion: The high prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is due to majority of women is developing osteoarthritis at a younger age. This is leading to decrease in quality of life of women at a younger age group in the community.