Functional assessment of knee osteoarthritis in the hospital outpatient care unit

Abstract

Background: Osteoarthritis is a joint cartilage disease that affects a patient’s quality of life as it limits the patient’s movement, reduces the ability to work, increases emotions, and leads to long-term depression. Objective: To report the functional status of Knee OA in outpatient care at Ulin Hospital Banjarmasin, Indonesia. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a functional assessment of the patient's medical record data. The Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) instruments were used. Fifty-one respondents participated in the study. Result: Most respondents were female (86.27%), 50–59 years old (33.33%), and suffered from OA for less than one year (35.29%). In addition, 24 patients (47%) suffered from mild OA, and 27 patients (53%) had moderate OA, reflecting that patients might have issues with their physical function. Of all participants, 60.78% had grade three OA by Kellgren Lawrence's severity classification; others had grade two. All patients received intraarticular injections of hyaluronic acid. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference between the WOMAC score and the gender, age, degree of OA and duration of OA. Hence, this illustrates that patients would suffer more from OA along with disease progression.