Health Related Quality of Life in Patients with Single Lower Limb Amputation

Objective: To determine the effects of age, cause of amputation, and anatomic level of amputation on the health related quality of life (HRQOL) in individuals with unilateral lower limb amputation. Study Design: A cross-sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: The Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, from August 2014 to February 2015. Methodology: Short Form-36 (SF-36) health related quality of life (HRQOL). Survey questionnaire was used to collect data. The responses were scored by using the quality metric health outcomes (TM) scoring software 4.5. The scores were entered and analysed in SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 52 patients were inducted with mean age of 30.71 +/- 7.50 years. Mean physical component summary (PCS) was lower than mental component summary (MCS) (38.7 vs. 44.8). RP and RE scores were found to be significantly associated with gender (p=0.024 and p=0.003, respectively). Age group was also significantly associated with RP (p=0.037) and SF (p=0.041). When SF-36 domains were compared with level of amputation (i.e. trans-tibial and transfemoral), none of the domains showed any statistically significant results. Conclusion: Age and indication affect different aspects of quality of life but level of amputation did not. If these are known and anticipated before any type of rehabilitation, this could help in anticipation of health consequences and prevention accordingly.