Activity level and quality of life among patients undergoing knee replacement surgery

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a widespread disease in Hungary. For severe cases, knee replacement surgery is the last-stage intervention to reduce pain and improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, there is no information about the activity level of Hungarians with severe knee OA. This study evaluated the improvement in the quality of life pre-post knee replacement surgery among Hungarian patients. This study included eight participants (70.8±4.5 years and 30.0±3.0 kg/m2) with severe knee OA undergoing total unilateral knee replacement surgery. The activity level was evaluated with ActivPAL and Short Form-36 one month before surgery and one year after surgery. One year after surgery, the sedentary time and standing time had significantly improved among the patients by 12% (p=0.033) and 65.7% (p=0.030), respectively. The number of steps improved by 17.1% (p=0.11) based on ActivPAL. Based on the Short Form-36, the overall score, pain, and physical function had improved after one year by 50.0% (p=0.050), 23.9% (p=0.32), and 5.1% (p=0.58), respectively. This is the first study in Hungary that used both objective and subjective tools. The outcomes found that the activity level and pain improved after surgery among Hungarian patients with severe knee OA. However, the sedentary time after the surgery should be reduced to reach the maximum benefits of surgery.