265047 Associations of socioeconomic status with depressive symptoms and perceived helplessness in people with hip osteoarthritis

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 1:06 PM - 1:18 PM

My-Linh Luong, MSPH , Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Introduction: We examined associations between socioeconomic status (SES) with depressive symptoms and perceived helplessness in persons with hip radiographic osteoarthritis (rOA) or symptomatic OA in the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project taking disability into consideration. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on individuals with hip rOA (n=733) or symptomatic OA (n=252). rOA was defined as Kellgren-Lawrence ≥2. Symptomatic hip OA was identified as radiographic and pain symptoms in the same hip. Individual SES measures included educational attainment and occupation, while community SES was measured with the census block group poverty rate. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) was used to measure disability. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D). Perceived helplessness was assessed by the 5-item Rheumatology Attitudes Index (RAI). Analyses examined disability and covariate-adjusted associations of psychosocial outcomes with each SES variable in individuals with hip rOA and the subset with symptomatic hip OA. Results: Educational attainment and non-managerial occupation type were significantly associated with perceived helplessness and depression in those with rOA after adjusting for disability and covariates. In the subset of individuals with symptomatic OA, low educational attainment was significantly associated with perceived helplessness and non-managerial occupation approached significance. Community SES was not associated with CES-D or RAI scores in participants with rOA or symptomatic OA. Conclusion: Individual SES is an important determinant in psychosocial outcomes in OA individuals, above and beyond disability

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the role of socioeconomic status on psychosocial health outcomes in individuals with hip osteoarthritis

Keywords: Arthritis, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a co-author on several papers focusing on health outcomes of individuals with osteoarthritis. I am currently a doctoral student at the Thurston Arthritis Research Center under the mentorship of Dr. Leigh Callahan and have previously worked at the Orange County Department on Aging.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.