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. 2018 May 2;6(1):19.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-018-0234-3.

Psychological health is associated with knee pain and physical function in patients with knee osteoarthritis: an exploratory cross-sectional study

Hirotaka Iijima  1   2   3 , Tomoki Aoyama  4 , Naoto Fukutani  4 , Takuya Isho  4   5 , Yuko Yamamoto  6 , Masakazu Hiraoka  7 , Kazuyuki Miyanobu  6 , Masashi Jinnouchi  8 , Eishi Kaneda  6   7   8 , Hiroshi Kuroki  4 , Shuichi Matsuda  9
Affiliations

Psychological health is associated with knee pain and physical function in patients with knee osteoarthritis: an exploratory cross-sectional study

Hirotaka Iijima et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Depressive symptoms are a major comorbidity in older adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, the type of activity-induced knee pain associated with depression has not been examined. Furthermore, there is conflicting evidence regarding the association between depression and performance-based physical function. This study aimed to examine (i) the association between depressive symptoms and knee pain intensity, particularly task-specific knee pain during daily living, and (ii) the association between depressive symptoms and performance-based physical function, while considering other potential risk factors, including bilateral knee pain and ambulatory physical activity.

Methods: Patients in orthopaedic clinics (n = 95; age, 61-91 years; 67.4% female) who were diagnosed with radiographic knee OA (Kellgren/Lawrence [K/L] grade ≥ 1) underwent evaluation of psychological health using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Knee pain and physical function were assessed using the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM), 10-m walk, timed up and go (TUG), and five-repetition chair stand tests.

Results: Ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that depression, defined as a GDS score ≥ 5 points, was significantly associated with a worse score on the JKOM pain-subcategory and a higher level of task-specific knee pain intensity during daily living, after being adjusted for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), K/L grade, and ambulatory physical activity. Furthermore, depression was significantly associated with a slower gait velocity and a longer TUG time, after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, K/L grade, presence of bilateral knee pain, and ambulatory physical activity.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that depression may be associated with increased knee pain intensity during daily living in a non-task-specific manner and is associated with functional limitation in patients with knee OA, even after controlling for covariates, including bilateral knee pain and ambulatory physical activity.

Keywords: Depression; Functional limitation; Knee osteoarthritis; Knee pain; Physical activity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The ethical committee of Kyoto University approved the study (approval number: E1923), and written informed consent was obtained from all participants before their enrollment.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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