Co-Morbidities and Sex Differences in Long-Term Quality-of-Life Outcomes among Patients with and without Diabetes after Total Knee Replacement: Five-Year Data from Registry Study

A recent article by Michelle Tew, Associate Professor Kim Dalziel and Professor Philip Clarke at the Centre for Health Policy has been published in the Journal for Clinical Medicine.

This study used annual quality-of-life measures collected from total knee replacement (TKR) patients captured in the St. Vincent’s Melbourne Arthroplasty Outcomes (SMART) Registry over a 5-year period to examine if and to what extent quality-of-life trajectories differ between patients with and without diabetes and what patient characteristics or subgroups were related to poor QoL outcomes. The findings showed that although patients achieve substantial improvement in quality-of-life following TKR surgery, there are important differences in longer term quality-of-life outcomes between patients with and without diabetes. This difference was more pronounced among females and in patients with concurrent respiratory and mental health disorders. These findings highlight the need for a better understanding of patient and physiologic differences and for tailoring management to optimise patient outcomes. They are also useful in helping guide patient-centred care among patients with diabetes and in facilitating discussions of expected outcomes and impact of surgery on their quality-of-life.

This study was a collaboration between the Health Economics Unit and the Department of Surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Further details and access to the article can be found here.