Introduction

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most habitual type of arthritis in both developing and developed countries. It is a long-term, dynamic musculoskeletal disorder characterized by abrupt loss of cartilage in joints which result in bones rubbing together and make stiffness, impaired movement and pain. The disease most usually affects the joints in the hands, hips, knees, spine and feet. The disease is associated with non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors such as lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, obesity, bone density, trauma, occupational injury and gender (Lawrence et al., 2008).

Osteoarthritis primarily affects the elderly population. It’s a significant cause of disability in elderly adults worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 18.0% of women and 9.6% of men aged over 60 years have symptomatic osteoarthritis worldwide. 80% of those with osteoarthritis have restrictions in movement, and 25% cannot perform their major daily activities of life (Nguyen et al., 2011).

Osteoarthritis can be classified into two groups primary and secondary. Primary osteoarthritis is a long-term degenerative disease and related to aging. The water content of the cartilages lessens on increasing age, thus making them more susceptible to degradation. While secondary arthritis usually affects the joints prior in life due to specific causes such as an injury during a job requiring frequent squatting or kneeling for a long duration, diabetes and obesity (Cross et al., 2014).

Osteoarthritis is the second most habitual rheumatologic problem, and it is the most prevalent joint disease with a prevalence of 22% to 39% in India. OA is more frequent in women than in men. Nearly, 45% of women over the age of 65 years have symptoms while 70% of those extending 65 years show radiological evidence of OA (Felson et al., 2000).

The prevalence of OA is rising due to population ageing and an increase in related factors such as sedentary lifestyle, obesity. The physical disability arising from loss of functional capacity and pain reduces the quality of life and increases the risk of further morbidity. As highly effective medicinal management is not available, emphasis should be given to the preventive aspect of lifestyle measures in the form of a healthy diet and exercise (Felson et al., 2000).

Osteoarthritis is a long-term degenerative disorder of multifactorial etiology characterized by the depletion of articular cartilage hypertrophy at the bone of the margins, subchondral sclerosis, and range of biochemical & morphological alterations at the joint capsule & synovial membrane. Persistent changes in the late stage of OA include ulceration, softening, and focal disintegration at the articular cartilage (Waldron, 1991).

Osteoarthritis is a slowly continuing inflammatory disorder of the diarthroidal joints. Prevalence of the knee osteoarthritis is reported to increase in females during premenopausal age and remains high throughout menopause (Kaur & Sharma, 2015). The reason for this is revealed in many studies that loss of estrogen at the time of menopause multiplicate women’s risk of getting osteoarthrirtiswa (Waldron, 1991).

Materials and Methods

A sample of 100 women aged above 40 years. Samples are selected purposive sampling techniques. The descriptive study was conducted during a one-week period. Data collection was conducted in Thirumizhisai, after getting permission from the head of the Thirumizhisai.

Tool for data collection

Modified Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score(KOOS)checklist were used to collect data on quality of life among the women with osteoarthritis. A demographic variable consists of age, religion, type of family, education, occupation, socio-economic status, marital status, Any other health information. The study investigators explained to the women’s about the study's objectives, and requirement of consent to participate in the study. The investigators then provided instructions for filling the questionnaire, and then guided the women (Kaur & Sharma, 2015). Understanding of each question was checked by asking the women to repeat the meaning. During the filling of questionnaires, the investigators helped the women throughout and helped to simplify the purpose of each question, clarifying doubts and checking for completeness of filling up the questionnaire. Chi‑square test was used to test the association between categorical variables. P < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Tool reliability

The test-retest reliability measured using a two-way random-effects model of interclass correlation coefficient with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). An ICC equal or more than 0.70 is considered acceptable for test-retest reliability

Ethical consideration

The ethics committee has approved the project of the institution. Informed consent was obtained from participants before initiating the study.

Results and Discussion

Out of 100 samples 27(27%) samples were come under type age group of 40-49 years ,38(38%) were under the age group of 50-59 years ,28(28%)samples were under the age group of 60-69years.7(7%)samples were under the age group of 70-79years Figure 1. Regarding occupation out of 100 samples 45(45%) samples were housewives, 14(14%) samples were employees, 15(15%) samples were self-employees, 26(26%)samples were daily wagers. Regarding Socioeconomic status out of 100 samples, 13(13%)samples were upper class, 64(64%) were middle class, 23(23%)samples were lower level. Regarding marital status, out of 100 samples, 82(82%) samples were married, 20(20%) samples were unmarried. Regarding health information out of 100 samples, 31(31%) samples have diabetes mellitus, 2(2%) samples have renal disease, 6(6%) samples have cardiac disease, 61(61%)samples have no health problems Table 1.

There was an association between a demographic variable with knee joint osteoarthritis among the women aged above 40 years. There was statistically significant found in any other health problems on clients to assess the quality of life among the women with osteoarthritis. Quality of being among the women with osteoarthritis aged above 40 years has the percentage of mild (26%), moderate (72%), and severe (2)Table 2.

Table 3 shows the mean score for women aged above 40years for mild (7.42), moderate (35.31) and severe (1.42) and standard deviation score for mild (12.98), moderate (18.05) and severe (10.00).

The present study assesses the relationship between the quality of life among women with osteoarthritis aged above 40 years. The result indicates that approximately women aged above 40 years have a percentage of mild (26%), moderate (72%), and severe (2). Which is similar to findings reported by study conducted by (Salve, Gupta, Palanivel, Yadav, & Singh, 2010) from Delhi which showed that out of 123 women with osteoarthritis only 53 (43%) were currently on treatment, out of which 40 (78.4%)are receiving treatment from government facility whereas remaining participants were seeking treatment from private practitioners, chemist and traditional healers. More than half of women (57%) who were suffering from osteoarthritis did not seek any treatment (Salve et al., 2010).

In another study conducted by (Narasimha, Ravish, Ranganath, & Sri, 2016). We also found there was a significant association between prevalence of knee osteoarthritis and BMI of study participants (p-0.04) and also there was a significant association between osteoarthritis and activities of daily living (Chi-38.7, df- 1, p<0.001) (Narasimha et al., 2016).

(Pal, Singh, Chaturvedi, Pruthi, & Vij, 2016) conducted a similar study. The prevalence of OA is accessible for the USA and European populations, but there are scare studies done in other regions. In 1990, it was the 10^th leading cause of nonfatal diseases contributed 2.8% years of disability. The estimated prevalence of symptomatic OA is 18% in females and 9.6% in men. In the global burden of diseases, in 2000, it was the 4^th leading cause of years lived with disability (YLD) leads to 3% YLD (Pal et al., 2016).

Conclusion

The study urban had a higher prevalence (21.5%) of knee osteoarthritis as compared to rural women (17.5%); the difference was not significant. Our findings support the previous studies done in UT. A significant difference between the prevalence of KOA in rural (32.6%) and urban (60.3%) areas. The low prevalence among rural area could be due to more physical work, higher tolerance, less obesity, diet and lifestyle. Knee OA was significantly more common in the country compared to urban and suburban populations in Athens, Greece

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are thankful to Prof. Dr.S.Kalabarathi, principal of Saveetha College of Nursing, SIMATS. The authors also wish cordial thanks to Dr.G.Bhuvaneshwari,asso. Professor, Dr Tamilselvi assistant professor of saveetha college of nursing, SIMATS, for their encouragement, valuable suggestions, support and advice given throughout the study.