Distributed in Open Access Policy under Creative Commons® Attribution License 3.0 Adegoke et al J Phys Ther. 2012;6:13-20. www.jpt.scopemed.org 13 Original article Comparison of Health-Related Quality of Life of Nigerian Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis and Age-Matched Controls Babatunde Adegoke a *, Racheal Alao b , Adesola Odole a . Introduction Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a term that is used interchangeably with quality of life when the focus is on the impact of a disease or medical condition on functional health status and well- being as perceived and reported by the patient. 1 It refers to patients’ appraisals of their current levels of functioning and satisfaction when compared to what they perceive to be ideal. 2 The ability to effectively measure HRQoL is central to describing the impact of a disease, treatment or other insults including aging on a patient. HRQoL has in the last two decades hence become an important measure of outcome of care for patients with chronic illnesses, 3 and found to be predictive of health service utilization and mortality. 4-6 Chronic diseases may not kill but they may consume a lot of health care resources and threaten the quality of life of sufferers. 7-9 Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions seldom cause death but have substantial impact on health; hence HRQoL measures are better indicators of the impact of such diseases in a community than mortality rates. 10 ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Health-related Quality of Life (HRQL) is a good indicator of the impact of a disease on a patient’s health and a key outcome in arthritis management. The impact of osteoarthritis (OA) on the health of Nigerians has not been reported. PURPOSE: This study compared the HRQL of patients with knee OA and that of age-matched controls and investigated the relationship between HRQL and each of level of pain and functional ability in patients with knee OA. METHODS: Fifty- three patients with symptomatic knee OA (OAG), selected through a consecutive sampling technique and 105 age- matched controls (CG) participated in this cross-sectional survey. HRQL of participants in both groups was assessed with the WHO Quality of Life Bref (WHO QoL Bref) while the OAG were also assessed on their functional status and pain intensity using Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score and . Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman Rank Order Correlation at alpha level of 0.05. RESULTS: Participants were aged 56.55± 11.22 years (OAG) and 55.67± 12.95 years (CG). There was no significant difference between the HRQL scores of the participants in the OAG (65.32 ± 11.40) and those in the CG (66.39 ±13.31). A significant positive correlation (p=0.05) existed between HRQL scores and pain intensity scores of the participants in the OAG while no significant correlation (p= 0.05) existed between their HRQL scores and functional status scores. There was also no significant gender difference (p= 0.68) in the HRQL scores of the participants in the OAG. CONCLUSION: Knee OA had no significant influence on HRQoL of Nigerians. Key words: osteoarthritis, knee, health-related quality of life, functional status. Authors’ information: a- College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Lagos, Nigeria. *- Corresponding author. Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail for correspondence: babatundeadegoke@yahoo.com Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic, degenerative disorder with multi-factorial aetiology characterised by the loss of articular cartilage and peri- articular bone remodelling. 11 It is a crippling disease that imposes significant economic implications on the society due to its effects on function and activities of daily living. 12 In OA patients, HRQoL and activities of daily living have been reported to be negatively affected. 13 The impact of OA as a chronic disease has been