The relationship of pain catastrophizing with postoperative patient-reported outcome measures in adults with pre-arthritic hip disease

The association between preoperative pain catastrophizing and postoperative patient-reported outcome measures of patients with pre-arthritic hip disease was evaluated. All patients scheduled for joint-preserving surgeries of the hip (JPSH) at our institution were approached. Patient demographics (age, sex, body mass index (BMI)), pain intensity (Numeric Pain Scale (NPS)) and pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS)) were collected preoperatively. Patient function (12-Item International Hip Outcome Tool (iHot-12)) and physical and mental health (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS-10) mental/physical) were collected preoperatively, three-month and one-year postoperatively. The analysis consisted of multivariate linear regression models fitted for continuous scores of outcome measures at three-month and one-year. Correlation between preoperative PCS and iHot-12 was assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. A total of 274 patients completed the PCS and were included in the multivariate linear regression models. Most patients were females (66.8%), mean age was 33 (SD 9), mean BMI was 26.5 (SD 5.8) and most were diagnosed with femoro-acetabular impingement (46.0%) and underwent arthroscopy (77.0%). There were statistically significant correlations between PCS and iHot-12 (preoperatively −0.615, P < 0.001; three-month −0.242, P = 0.002). Statistically significant associations were found for function (three-month PCS P = 0.046, age P = 0.014, NPS P = 0.043; one-year BMI P = 0.005, NPS P = 0.014), physical health (three-month BMI, P = 0.002, NPS P = 0.008; one-year BMI P = 0.002, NPS P = 0.013) and mental health (three-month BMI P = 0.047; one-year BMI P = 0.030). There is an association between function and preoperative pain catastrophizing in patients with pre-arthritic hip disease undergoing JPSH. When considering confounding variables, preoperative pain catastrophizing is associated with short-term recovery.