An observational descriptive cross sectional multicenter study of health related quality of life among Iraqi patients after total hip replacement

BACKGROUND: Hip replacement is highly effective procedure to decrease pain and disability in patients with hip arthritis and accordingly can affect health related quality of life (HRQOL). Globally, limited studies have reported impact of total hip replacement (THR) on HRQOL and there is no previous reports of HRQOL among Iraqi patients after THR. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate HRQOL in patients after THR and to assess impact of sociodemographic characteristics on it if present. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A multicenter cross sectional study was conducted on 96 patients with THR in Iraq. Sociodemographic characteristics were measured. HRQOL after THR was evaluated using Harris hip score (HHS). RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 56.76, (13.88) years with a range of 23–90 years. Most of patients were females (52 patients (54.2%). Mean BMI was 44.87(8.07) kg/m(2) with a range of 28.1–56.7 kg/m(2). The mean(SD) of HHS was 84.39 (7.25) with minimum score of 61.7 and maximum score 93.8. Sociodemographic characteristics had no statistically significant effect on HRQOL measured by HHS except BMI. For each 1 unit increase in BMI, there is significantly and independently decrease in HHS by −0.276. CONCLUSIONS: THR improved HRQOL. BMI was the only significant independent factor that was negatively correlated with HRQOL.