Abstract:
Introduction: The knee osteoarthritis (OA), the most common chronic illness, has the
potential to compromise the health and quality of life of not only in the patient but also affect family
members. The burden of disease determines the need to provide socio-emotional support and task
assistance to the patient.
Purpose and objectives: To determine de social support to the patients with knee OA.
Material and methods: Patients were eligible for inclusion in this trial that had experienced
clinical symptoms of osteoarthritis (OA) in the knee at least 3 months before inclusion into study.
All patients were required to fulfill the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria
for knee OA. We used data for the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) to assess
patient’s self-reported knee pain, function and quality of life. The social support was evaluated by
Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) 12, consisting in 3 subscales (appraisal, belonging,
tangible). This study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki
(1996) and good clinical practice.
Results: We examined 29 patients with OA, mean age 62.52 ± 7.92 years, (range 55-70),
86.2% women. For the entire sample, knee pain was present in the majority (100%) of patients. The
radiographic characteristics: KL 11-15 (51.72%) patients, KL III - (44.82%) and the most severe
form in just one case. The KOOS results showed that Pain level was 71.99%, Symptoms 74.28%,
Activity Daily Living (ADL) - 61.14%, the possibility to practice sport was the worse score 45%,
and the QoL - 60.33% qualified as middle. The social support was 31.2 points appreciated
satisfying, the high score was ISEL - appraisal-12, tangible-9.8 points and belonging-9.3
appreciated the worse. There were significant indirect correlation between the age of patients and
ISEL total r = -0.71 (p<0.001) and mild correlation between social support and symptoms,
functionality of knee and pain r = 0.51 to 0.54 (p<0.05). Also, moderate correlation were found
between the QoL and ISEL total r = -0.52 (p>0.06).
Conclusion: Pain as a common symptom of knee osteoarthritis had a substantial influence on
the degree of social support perceived by the patients. The age and disease manifestation
determined the level of social support and decreased directly the quality of life.
