To Evaluate the Correlation Between Body Mass Index and Severity of Knee Pain in Osteoarthritis Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a leading cause of disability among the aged population worldwide. A positive association between obesity or being overweight and increased risk of KOA has been shown in numerous studies. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the correlation between BMI and severity of knee pain in osteoarthritis patients.

Materials & Methods: A total of 150 patients with confirmed radiographic and clinical diagnosis of knee OA were included. BMI was calculated and all the patients were divided into three study groups based on BMI as follows- Group A: BMI less than 25 Kg/m², Group B: BMI between 25 Kg/m² to 30 Kg/m², and Group C: BMI more than 30 Kg/m², For assessing the pain intensity, visual analogue scale (VAS) was used. VAS was scored on the scale of zero to ten with zero indicating no pain and ten indicating most severe unbearable pain. Pain was further graded into three classes on the basis of VAS as follows-Mild pain: VAS score of less than 3, Moderate pain: VAS score between 4 to 6, and Severe pain: VAS score of more than 6. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software.

Results: Among group A patients, incidence of moderate pain was 58 percent while of mild pain was 24 percent. Among group B patients, incidence of moderate pain was 44 percent while of mild pain was 20 percent. Among group C patients, incidence of severe pain was 58 percent while of moderate pain was 32 percent. Significant increase in incidence of pain was seen in obese patients in comparison to non-obese patients.

Conclusion: BMI is significantly correlated with severity of pain of KOA patients. Also, higher pain was associated with higher BMI.