An investigation of the influence of age, clinical status, pain and position sense on stair walking in women with osteoarthrosis

The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which stair walking in persons with osteoarthrosis of the knee is influenced by age, weight, height, pain, clinical status, and position sense. The subjects were six women with severe knee joint disease who attended a single test session at which clinical status, disease severity, pain, position sense and stair-walking time was assessed. The results of correlation analyses revealed significant correlations of r = 0.84 and r = 0.95 (p < 0.05) between the measurements of stair-walking time and pain and between the measurements of stair-walking time and position sense, respectively. There was no relationship between stair-walking time and age, height, weight, clinical status or disease severity. It is concluded that knee pain and positional sense are strong determinants of the stair-walking ability of individual osteoarthrotic patients. In treating stair-walking problems in this group, it is recommended that effort be directed to improving proprioception as well as to reducing pain.