DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS IN BAHRAIN

Abstract

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent degenerative condition, with long-term consequences for public health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). OA's severity, impacting individuals' QoL through chronic pain and restricted activity.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between selected demographic and clinical characteristics and HR-QoL scores in patients with OA in Bahrain.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at two hospitals in Bahrain (Dec 2024–Mar 2025). The HR-QoL Index was used to assess 35 items across six domains evaluated for satisfaction and importance: physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships, environment, spirituality, and general well-being domain.

Results: This study included 98 adult patients (27 men and 71 women), with a mean age of 63.9 ± 10.7 years, and mean OA disease duration of 9.6 ± 7.8 years. The mean satisfaction score was 4.8 ± 0.6, and importance score was 5.3 ± 0.4, and weighed HR-QoL score of 26.7 ± 4.4. Among HR-QoL domains, the highest satisfaction was reported in spirituality (5.5 ± 0.5) and general well-being (5.3 ± 0.7), while physical health satisfaction was the lowest (4.4 ± 1.0). For perceived importance, physical health (5.8 ± 0.5) and spirituality (5.6 ± 0.8) ranked the highest.

Conclusions: Our results highlight variations in gender, marital status, education level, occupation, income, and BMI classification influence patients’ perceptions of QoL. Clinical and lifestyle factors, including medication use, physical deformities, disease duration, hospital admissions, and job impact, also significantly shape HR-QoL outcomes. These findings emphasize the importance of personalized, holistic care strategies in managing OA.