Correlation between catastrophizing and Lequesne index in case of osteoarthritis of the knee: A prospective study

Objective

Catastrophizing is known to be associated with lower analgesia and results in total knee arthroplasty justifying its evaluation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the functional status and the catastrophizing in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods

We included patients consulting for knee osteoarthritis one of the three general practitioners participating in the study or a rheumatologist at University Hospital of Besançon. We excluded those with surgical indication. For each patient we registered the epidemiological data, the radiographic stage, the Lequesne index and the Pain Catastrophizing Score (PCS). The correlation between the different scores was assessed with a Spearman test.

Results

Hundred patients were included, 50 patients consulting a general practitioner and 50 consulting a rheumatologist, between November 2015 and April 2016. There were mainly women (57%) with a mean age of 64.8 ± 1.17 years old. The mean radiographic stage was 2.66 ± 0.11 on the Kellgren and Lawrence scale. The Mean PCS was 12.98 ± 1.18 and the mean Lequesne index was 10.46 ± 0.47. Patients seen by rheumatologists had a more important PCS score than those seen by general practitioners, although these patients had statistically equivalent radiographic scale and Lequesne index. There was a weak correlation (r = 0.3, P = 0.006) between the Lequesne index and the radiographic scale but no correlation between the PCS and the radiographic scale. However, the correlation between the PCS and the Lequesne index was moderate (r = 0.47; P < 0.0001).

Conclusion

Psychological factors like catastrophizing correlated with Lequesne index.