title: Knee arthroplasty: disabilities in comparison to the general population and to hip arthroplasty using a French national longitudinal survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Knee arthroplasty is increasing exponentially due to the aging of the population and to the broadening of indications. We aimed to compare physical disability and its evolution over two years in people with knee arthroplasty to that in the general population. A secondary objective was to compare the level of disabilities of people with knee to people with hip arthroplasty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  16,945 people representative of the French population were selected in 1999 from the French census and interviewed about their level of disability. This sample included 815 people with lower limb arthroplasty. In 2001, 608 of them were re-interviewed, among whom 134 had knee arthroplasty. Among the other participants re-interviewed, we identified 68 who had undergone knee arthroplasty and 145 hip arthroplasty within the last two years (recent arthroplasty). People with knee arthroplasty reported significantly greater difficulties than the general population with bending forward (odds ratio [OR] = 4.7; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7, 12.6), walking more than 500 meters (OR = 6.0; 95% CI: 1.5, 24.7) and carrying 5 kg kilograms for 10 meters (OR = 4.6; 95% CI: 1.3, 16.4). However, the two years evolution in disability was similar to that in the general population for most activities. The level of mobility was similar between people with recent knee arthroplasty and those with recent hip arthroplasty. Nevertheless, people with recent knee arthroplasty reported a lower level of disability than the other group for washing and bending forward (OR = 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.6 and OR = 0.4; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.9, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  People with knee arthroplasty reported a higher risk of disability than the general population for common activities of daily living but a similar evolution. There was no relevant difference between recent knee and hip arthroplasties for mobility.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U738, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dechartres
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boutron
authors.forename: Remy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nizard
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poiraudeau
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baron
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ravaud
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Ravaud
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors