Knee-Related Quality of Life and Disease Severity Osteoarthritic Patient Groups with & without Active Religious Prayer Performance

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of joints and is the major cause of chronic impairment in older ages. This is the consequence of several years of use accompanied by the effect of wear and tear of bone, joint, and cartilage. Aims & Objectives: To evaluate the quality of life among patients with osteoarthritis actively and non-actively performing religious prayers in district Swat, Pakistan. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at District Swat, from November 2019 to September 2020. Material & Method: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among osteoarthritic patients. A pre-tested and validated KOOS questionnaire was administered to osteoarthritic patients (group 1), who had modified their prayer method by using a chair to perform prayers, and compared to another group of osteoarthritic patients (group 2) who were practicing normal praying position. Pain, symptoms, everyday activities, sports and recreation, and knee-related quality of life (QOL) were assessed. SPSS version 22 was used for statistical analysis. P-value ?0.05 was considered significant. Results: The total number of patients in both groups was 800. Among those, 54.8% had a family history of knee pain, 60.4% had bilateral knee problems and 93.4% had no prior knee injuries. Group 1 was found to have more complaints related to the knee as compared to group 2 in all subscales of KOOS. Statistically significant relationship was observed between duration of knee pain, family history, knee problem, and previous knee injury between group 1 and group 2. (P<0.05) Conclusion: The study found that knee function and quality of life deteriorated over the years. By using an alternative way of offering prayers, deep flexion can be limited, thus reducing the pain during prayers.