[Quality of life in patients with functional knee impairment at a primary health care unit]. / Calidad de vida en pacientes con limitación funcional de la rodilla por gonartrosis. En una unidad de primer nivel de atención médica.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of life of patients with functional knee impairment at a primary health care unit. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Descriptive study of 317 primary health care patients with functional impairment due to gonarthrosis. The WOMAC and SF-36 questionnaires were used to assess functional impairment and quality of life, respectively. We used chi2 and Kendall's Tau-b to prove the hypothesis. RESULTS: 317 patients, 137 (43%) males, 180 (57%) females, mean age 72.46, standard deviation +/- 6.76 with a range of 65-95. Mild functional impairment occurred in 222 (70%) patients; 52.37% of patients had a fair quality of life. When the association between functional impairment and quality of life was studied, chi2 was 106.78, with p = 0.00, the application of Kendall's Tau-b to show a relation was -0.502 with a significant p = 0.00, thus showing the relation between both variables. Both variables were dichotomized and the degree of dependence of quality of life from functional impairment was assessed; 120 (37.85%) patients had poor quality of life and mild functional impairment with chi2 = 75.50, p = 0.00, Kendall's Tau-b = -0.428, p = 0.00. CONCLUSION: The quality of life of patients with gonarthrosis ranges from fair to poor and is directly dependent on the degree of functional impairment.