Musculoskeletal Complications And General Health Status Of Individuals With Sickle Cell Disease

Abstract

Sickle cell disease is a chronic disease that is associated with high degree of morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to find the relationship between musculoskeletal complications and general health status of patients with sickle cell disorders. 
 
 The HSQ 2.0 questionnaire, (a general health survey questionnaire), was used to assess the subjects’ health status while a separate questionnaire was used to compile data on complications. Descriptive and inferential statistic of Spearman’s correlation was used to find relationship between complications and health status. Level of significance was set at 0.05 alpha.
 
 Seventy-two subjects with sickle cell disorder participated in the study. Fifty-six (77.8%) were of genotype Hb SS. Most of the subjects, 51 (70.8%) normally experienced back pain, 22 (30.5%) had chest pain while only 2.8% had visual problem. Generally, subjects scored low on all health status sub-scales except the mental health sub-scale where the mean score was near 60% (59.84 ± 17.41%). The lowest mean score (47.99 ± 24.03%) was obtained on role limitation due to physical health sub-scale. There were significant correlations between complications and health status.
 
 It was concluded that the health of individuals with sickle cell disease is compromised on all the eight domains of health status and that painful complications affect their social and physical functioning and impose limitation on them. It was also concluded that the more the number of body parts with pain the lower the health status become.
 
 KEYWORDS: Musculoskeletal complications; Health status; Sickle cell disease.