Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Basic Science

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic, degenerative, inflammatory musculoskeletal dysfunction. It is associated with pain, reduced functional capacity and deficient quality of life. Fatigue is a frequent complaint in patients with arthritis, which correlates to tiredness. Purpose of the study: This study was aimed to assess fatigue in knee osteoarthritis{u2019} patients and to correlate it to quality-of-life indexes and functional disability. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 200patients of both gender with ages ranged from 50 to 65 years old and medical diagnoses of secondary knee osteoarthritis either grade II or grade III. Patients were assigned according to the grade of knee OA in to two groups. The participants were selected according to the demographic survey including information on their age, gender, educational level, height, weight, BMI, disease duration. Fatigue was measured by Arabic version of fatigue severity scale; quality of life was measured by Arabic version of SF36 questionnaire and function disability was measured by Arabic version of The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC). Results: Grade II group consisted of 39 patients (3 male and 36female), grade III consisted of 161 patients (30 male and 131female). The results indicated that there were statistical difference in the fatigue severity scale between both groups with (U-value=2019, Z-value= -3.458, p = 0.001*), this significant increase in grade III group in compared to grade II group. There was a positive weak correlation between fatigue severity scale and WOMAC (p=0.0001*). And There was a positive weak correlation between fatigue and pain domain of SF36questionnaire (p=0.0001*) and there was a negative weak correlation between fatigue severity scale and vitality domain of SF36 questionnaire (p=0.002*)

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