Differences in health-related quality of life among patients after knee injury

While knee injury-related pain and functional limitations are common in the physically active, the impact on general health is not well documented. Further, it is not known how much these outcomes differ among individuals that did or did not have surgery following the knee injury, as well as compared to those without knee injury history. We examined differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and general health among patients after knee surgery, knee injury that did not require surgery, and healthy controls. Knee surgery participants reported higher body mass index and lower SF-8 physical component scores than knee nonsurgery and control (p <.001 all comparisons) groups. Knee nonsurgery participants had lower SF-8 physical component scores (p =.01) than control participants. Patients after knee surgery report more adverse health effects than those with nonsurgically treated knee injuries.