Patients with multiple osteochondromas report lower physical, mental quality of life
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According to recently presented results, unemployment, low physical activity and female sex are associated with lower quality of life for patients with multiple osteochondromas compared with the general population.
“Multiple osteochondromas is a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the presence of osteochondromas located on long bones and axial skeleton,” Ihsan Amajjar, an orthopaedic resident and PhD student at Maastricht University Medical Center and OLVG hospital in The Netherlands, said at the Virtual EFORT Congress.
“Patients often present with growth disturbances and angular deformities of the long bones. This could cause a variety of clinical, functional and cosmetic problems,” she said. “We hypothesized that these problems would affect both quality of life and physical activity levels.”
In a cross-sectional cohort study, Amajjar and colleagues had 326 patients (mean age of 42 years) who were diagnosed with multiple osteochondromas complete a series of questionnaires.
Researchers used the Short Form-36 Health Survey focused on the physical component scale (PCS) and the mental component scale (MCS) to assess perceived health-related quality of life and the Baecke physical activity questionnaire to assess physical activity level. They also included sociodemographic factors to assess the association between quality of life and physical activity level and compared the results against those of the general population.
Compared with the normative data of healthy subjects, quality of life and physical activity level both were “significantly lower” in patients with multiple osteochondromas. According to the study, the mean PCS was 41.27 for patients with multiple osteochondromas and 50.0 for healthy subjects. The mean MCS was 49.34 for patients with multiple osteochondromas and 50.0 for healthy subjects. In addition, mean Baecke scores were 7.66 for patients with multiple osteochondromas and 8.3 for healthy subjects.
Amajjar and colleagues found patients who were unemployed and/or female had lower quality of life scores. She said a “significant positive correlation” exists between PCS scores and physical activity level.
“Multiple osteochondroma patients reported lower physical activity level and quality of life compared with normative data of the general population. In our study, a lower quality of life was associated with low physical activity level, female sex and unemployment,” Amajjar said. “Further studies should assess potentially confounding factors in this population and evaluate new treatment strategies aimed at improving quality of life.”
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Amajjar I, et al. Paper 2426. Presented at: Virtual EFORT Congress; Oct. 28-30, 2020.
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