Depressive Symptoms Among Individuals With Knee Osteoarthritis

- Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common articular disease in developed countries and the leading cause of chronic disability, mostly knee OA. It’s chronic nature results in significant physical and psychological burden, including the development of depressive symptoms. In this present study we aimed to investigate factors related to the development of depressive symptoms in individuals with knee OA. 120 knee OA outpatients were obtained consecutively in this cross sectional study. Multiple linear regression was then used to assess relationships of independent risk factors to depressive symptoms severity measured with Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The final multivariate result in the model that fit the factors associated with depression in knee OA patients were income with p value = 0.012 and r value = -0.152, employment with p < 0.001 and r value = -0.473, BMI with p value < 0.001 and r value = 0.233 were found to contribute to depressive symptom scores for as much as 73.5%. Income, employment, and BMI are independent factors related to depressive score.