title: Daily functioning and health status in patients with hand osteoarthritis: Fewer differences between women and men than expected.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore and describe potential differences between women and men in functioning, health status and socio-economic variables in hand OA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Unselected patients of an Austrian outpatient clinic meeting the ACR criteria for hand OA were consecutively included and assessed once. Descriptive statistics and subgroup analyses were performed for differences between women and men. By regression analysis, we explored whether the variables sex, practice of sports, manual activities, aesthetic changes and functioning in daily life predict the levels of pain and vitality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  223 (88.1%) women and 30 (11.9%) men were included in the study. Significant differences between women and men were found in involvement in housework, aesthetic changes and own net income. Sex did not contribute significantly to any of the regression models, while e.g. involvement in sports was a strong individual contributor to self-reported vitality - irrespective of sex. Total X-ray scores of both hands as well as the involvement of CMCI joints did not show significant differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed significant differences between women and men with hand OA in socio-economic variables and aesthetic changes. In contrast to our expectations, no other differences between women and men were found in functioning and health status.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. tanja.stamm@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Tanja A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Stamm
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Machold
authors.forename: Enijad
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sahinbegovic
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haider
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Alexa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.forename: Toma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dallos
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zwerina
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smolen
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class
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