Introduction: Coxarthrosis is the premature wear and tear of the tissues that make up a joint. It results in damage to the hyaline cartilage located on the joint surfaces. This cartilage has little regenerative capacity. The most common method of surgical treatment is hip arthroplas-ty.Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation after hip arthro-plasty in overweight and obese youngest-old women compared to peers with normal body mass.Material and Methods: The study comprised 60 women aged 60-74 years who underwent rehabilitation following hip replacement surgery. The research tools included: the Visual Ana-logue Scale, Narrow Base Standing Balance Test (d 4106), Timed Up and Go test, Timed Walking Test (d 4500), and the BASELINE goniometer (Fei Fabrication Ltd., White Plains, New York, USA). Analyses were performed using the Student’s t-test for independent varia-bles or the Mann Whitney U test, as well as the nonparametric Friedman ANOVA test with Dunn’s post hoc test.Results: In examination 1, no statistically significant differences were found for pain intensity (p=0.092) or in the range of hip extension regarding the operated lower limb (p=0.442) be-tween overweight or obese women and patients with normal body mass. Conversely, at the examination conducted after three weeks of rehabilitation and five weeks post-completion, overweight or obese women exhibited significantly higher VAS scores (p=0.036 and p=0.036) and significantly reduced ranges of motion (p=0.026 and p=0.002) compared to their normal-weight peers. Similarly, the results of the remaining tests and measurements were poorer in women with excessive body mass, although the differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05).Conclusions: The patient’s body mass is one of the significant factors influencing the course and effectiveness of rehabilitation following hip arthroplasty. It constitutes an important prognostic indicator that should be taken into account when planning and individualising the rehabilitation programme. Rehabilitation should be conducted by an interdisciplinary team, including physiotherapists, physicians, clinical dietitians and, when necessary, psychologists.
Puszczałowska-Lizis et al. (Mon,) studied this question.