Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic, progressive and degenerative joint disease whose main cause is the breakdown and loss of articular cartilage, along with other articular and extra-articular changes such as bone hypertrophy (osteophyte formation), hypotrophy or muscle atrophy. After cardiovascular Osteoarthritis is the second most common chronic disease, primarily of the hip and knee joints. Osteoarthritis of the knee is an important factor in the occurrence of physical damage in the elderly and affects a person’s functional abilities, and thus the quality of life.
Working hypothesis: Physiotherapy leads to an improvement in the quality of life of people with knee osteoarthritis treated at the “Reumal” Fojnica health resort, while the null hypothesis is the negation of the working hypothesis. Research goals: To examine the sociodemographic characteristics of subjects with knee osteoarthritis, to assess the quality of life of people with knee osteoarthritis before and after the use of physiotherapy, to
analyze the type and modalities of physiotherapy use by subjects in the study group.
Material and methods of research: The research was conducted in 2023 at the “Reumal” health resort in Fojnica. The research included 50 subjects of both sexes with knee osteoarthritis. The subjects completed a general and standardized questionnaire before and after the physiotherapy program. Research results: Of the total number of male respondents, 16 (32.0%) were male, and 34 (68.0%) were female. The average age of the respondents in the research group was 72.98±7.31 years. The most commonly used physiotherapy modalities were parafango (52.0%), pearl bath (46.0%) and TENS (44.0%). The assessment of quality of life established a statistically significant improvement in quality of life after
physiotherapy on the mental health scale, difficulties in performing work and the scale of impact on sexual life. Correlation analysis shows that there is a statistically significant influence of age on the improvement in quality of life according to the pain scale, in the sense that older respondents have a lower probability of improvement (ro=-0.348; p=0.013).
Conclusion: The results of our research confirmed the working hypothesis that the use of physiotherapy leads to an improvement in the quality of life of people with knee osteoarthritis treated at the “Reumal”Fojnica health resort.
Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, quality of life, physiotherapy procedures.
