Pain, kinesiophobia, functional status, and physical activity among patients with knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

Aims: The present study attempted to investigate the relationship between pain, kinesiophobia, functionality, and physical activity among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: We recruited 88 patients aged 40-70 years with OA, 21 males and 67 females, who applied to Gebze Fatih State Hospital, Department of Physical Therapy and Orthopedic Clinic between February 2022 and January 2023. We evaluated the patients’ pain status with the Visual Pain Scale (VAS), their functional status with the WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), their kinesiophobia with the TAMPA Scale for Kinesiophobia (TKS), and their physical activity levels with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF). We performed all statistical analyses using SPSS 25.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, ABD) and p-value < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: The majority of the participants were females (76.1%, n=67), and the mean body mass index (BMI) was found to be 30.33. The findings revealed low positive correlations between the patients’ BMI and their VAS (p=0.029) and WOMAC scores (p=0.017). While we found a moderate positive relationship between the patients’ VAS and WOMAC scores (p=0.001), it was low between their TAMPA and WOMAC scores (p=0.001). Conclusion: As a result of the study, the relationship between pain, kinesiophobia, functional status and physical activity levels of individuals with knee OA was revealed; The necessity of planning applications to increase the physical activity level of these individuals and to reduce their body mass index has been underlined.