Predicting factors of quality of life in Chinese knee osteoarthritis patients with or without knee replacement surgery: Weight loss, physical exercise and patient expectations

Objective: To evaluate the effect of physical exercise (PE) and dietary weight loss on health relatedquality of life (HRQoL) in Chinese obese adults with OA of knee. We also evaluated the role of patients’ pre-operative expectations in improving the HRQoL. Materials and Methods: Each selected patient was asked to give score on two HRQoL tools: Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and 36-item short form (SF-36). In obese patients, effect of dietary weight loss and exercise on HRQoL was evaluated. The patients undergoing surgery were asked to complete HRQoL questionnaires before surgery and after 1 and 2 year of surgery, and evaluated the effect of fulfillment of their pre-operative expectation on HRQoL. Results: Dietary weight loss and PE have reported comparatively better HRQoL score compared to inactive individuals. Significantly higher HRQoL was observed with combined intervention of physical exercise and dietary weight loss compared to weight loss only and exercise only interventions (p<0.05). Similar trend of higher HRQoL was also observed in patients whose pre-operative expectations were fulfilled after knee replacement surgery (p<0.05). Conclusion: We suggest PE, dietary weight loss/control and fulfillment of pre-operative expectations are the predicting factors of HRQoL in Chinese knee osteoarthritis patients with or without knee replacement surgery.