International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | July 2022 | Vol 9 | Issue 7 Page 2803
International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health
Napitupulu RM et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2022 Jul;9(7):2803-2807
http://www.ijcmph.com
pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040
Original Research Article
Joint complaints in the elderly during the COVID-19
Rosintan Milana Napitupulu, Citra Puspa Juwita, James W. H. Manik*
INTRODUCTION
Entering 2022 people around the world and Indonesia are
still overshadowed by the COVID-19 which is leading to
daily living habits. The Delta variant that took a lot of
casualties is still in the process of government
countermeasures in Indonesia has mutated again into a
new variant that has a faster transmission rate.
Health is a very valuable and expensive thing, people
yearn to be able to move smoothly, without any
disturbances in their bodies. Every individual in
throughout life wants physical, mental, and social health.
Advances in science and technology and socio-economic
improvements have an impact on improving public health
degrees and life expectancy, so that the number of elderly
people also increases.
In Indonesia, people aged 60 years and over are called
elderly. The increase in the number of elderly people will
have an impact on various lives, such as increased health
service costs, decreased income/income, increased
disability, the need for social support, and the preparation
of an environment that is friendly to the elderly
population so that there is an increase in elderly
dependency.
1
This dependence is caused by physical,
psychic, and social that can be described through four
stages, namely weakness, functional limitations,
incapacies, and inhibitions that will be experienced along
with the process of deterioration due to aging processes.
2
The process of aging is a natural condition and cannot be
avoided in the phase. Health problems that often occur in
elderly are often called geriatric syndrome, among others:
lack of movement, easy fall, incontinence, dementia and
others. One of the causes of the elderly lack of movement
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 has an impact on the lack of physical activity of the elderly so that it can cause complaints
in the joints such as: pain, swelling, and limited movement. This study aim of the study was to find out the prevalence
joint complaints in the elderly during the COVID-19.
Method: Research is descriptive with a quantitative approach on 150 elderly people in Cililitan Village, East Jakarta,
Indonesia, where data collection is carried out by community health worker (CHW) who have been trained. Primary
data collection through a questionnaire containing six questions about complaints of pain, swelling, and motion
limitation in the joints: neck, shoulders, elbows, pelvis, ankles, fingers, toes, waist, wrists, and knees.
Results: Joint disorders occurred by the elderly, 133 elderly (89%) had two joint problems, followed 8 elderly (5%)
had problems in one joint, and as many as 9 elderly (6%) had three joint disorders. Joint complaints in the knee joint
are 44%, pain in the pelvic joint 25.3%, and pain in the fingers of the hand 24%. The second complaint of swelling
occurs in the knee joints by 8%, followed by the fingers and pelvic joints, which is 5.3%. The third complaint is
limited movement in the knee joint 58.6%, fingers 30%, and toes 22%.
Conclusions: All respondents had joint complaints during the COVID-19 mainly occurring in the knee joints, fingers,
toes, and pelvis.
Keywords: Elderly, Joint complaints, COVID-19, Knee joints, Pain
Physiotherapy Program, Faculty of Vocational Studies, Universitas Kristen Indonesia, Indonesia
Received: 11 May 2022
Revised: 05 June 2022
Accepted: 06 June 2022
*Correspondence:
James W. H. Manik,
E-mail: james.wamanik@uki.ac.id
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20221741