Prevalence and pattern of knee osteoarthritis among nurses

Abstract

Nurses at work assume uncomfortable postures that predispose the knee joint to osteoarthritis (OA) due to excess workload and stress. This study determined the prevalence and pattern of knee OAamong nurses. This cross - sectional designed survey employed convenient sampling technique to enrol 300 eligible and volunteer nurses from three randomly selected public hospitals out of five existing ones located at the study area. Written informed consent forms were issued to eligible participants. Forms containing socio-demographic variables and physical characteristics of the participants, American College of Rheumatology (ACR) clinical classification criteria for diagnosis of symptomatic knee OA, and health seeking behaviour were administered on the participants. Descriptive and Chi square (X²) statistics were employed to summarize and analyze the collected data respectively. Mean age and age range in years of the participants were 39.92 ± 10.97 and 19-65 respectively. Prevalence of knee OA among the nurses was 32.3%. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in the prevalence of knee OAamong the participants existed in the following variables: age groups, body mass indices (BMI), rank and years of working experience. Most (62.9%) participants presented with unilateral knee OA. Prevalence of knee OAamong nurses at the public hospitals surveyed was 32.3%. Age, BMI, working experience and rank were significantly associated with knee OA.

Keywords: Nurses, knee osteoarthritis, prevalence, pattern, clinical classification criteria