Quality of life before and one year after total hip arthroplasty was
evaluated in fifty-six patients who had arthrosis of the hip joint. There
were twenty-one men and thirty-five women, and the median age was
sixty-five years (range, thirty to seventy-nine years). Before and after
total hip arthroplasty, a functional assessment was done with the
Charnley-Merle d'Aubigne scoring system. The patients assessed quality of
life using the Nottingham Health Profile. In the comparison of quality of
life before and after the arthroplasty, significant improvement was
observed regarding pain (p less than 0.0001), energy (p less than 0.0001),
sleep (p less than 0.0001), and social isolation (p = 0.001). Similarly,
there was a significant reduction in the frequency of health-related
problems pertaining to housework (p less than 0.0001), holidays (p less
than 0.0001), hobbies (p = 0.0001), social life (p less than 0.0001),
sexual function (p = 0.001), and family life (p = 0.0005), and among
patients who were sixty-five years old or less and who worked at paid
employment (p = 0.04). Quality of life after total hip arthroplasty was in
close agreement with that of a healthy reference group of similar age and
sex distribution. It was concluded that quality of life after total hip
arthroplasty is improved considerably. The Nottingham Health Profile is a
valuable tool in the evaluation of the result of, as well as the indicators
for, total hip arthroplasty.