July 2014 Vol. 2 No. 7

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Original Research Article

Gender differences in pain perception and coping strategies among patients with knee and or hip osteoarthritis

Olarogba Olalekan Bolaji^1*, Idowu Opeyemi Ayodiipo¹, Adegun Joel Adekunle² and Ajayi-Vincent O²
 

¹Department of Medical Rehabilitation, Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
²Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author's E-mail: rogba_lekan@yahoo.com; Tel: 07030301714

Accepted April 24, 2014
 

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of functional disability, reduced quality of life and economic burden worldwide. However published works on gender differences in the pain coping strategies engaged in by patients who experience pain as a result of hip and/or knee osteoarthritis are scarce. This study therefore aimed to explore this. Two hundred and fifteen patients receiving treatment at Federal Medical Centre, Ido Ekiti, Ekiti state, Nigeria were surveyed. Socio-demographic data, BMI, pain intensity and joint affected were garnered from participants. Active and Passive Coping strategies were measured using the Pain Coping Inventory. Inferential statistics of t test and Man Whitney U test were used to determine significant differences between genders. Significance level was set at p<0.05. Out of the 215 patients (38.1% males vs. 61.9 % females) that were surveyed, 61(28.4%) had hip OA, 83(38.6%) had knee OA and 71(33%) had combined presentations. There was a statistical significant correlation between gender and each of BMI (p= 0.000) and perceived pain (p= 0.012). Overall, the use of passive coping strategies by men were significantly higher (U= 4022.5, p= 0.001) than women with the use of resting as a coping strategy higher among males (U=4459.0, p= 0.023) than females. The results obtained from the study shows that passive pain coping strategies were used by patients with hip and or knee osteoarthritis. A consistent finding emerging from research is that the frequent use of passive coping strategies is related to negative outcomes such as increased pain, depression, and physical disability.

Keywords: Coping, Osteoarthritis, Pain, Disability, Patients