Table 1.
Characteristics of our present study population and of patients with and without paid work
| Total study population (N=381) | Patients with paid work (47%, n=181) | Patients without paid work (53%, n=200) | |
| General patient characteristics | |||
| Age (years) | 61 (8) | 55 (6) | 66 (7) |
| Sex, women, n (%) | 319 (84) | 150 (83) | 169 (85) |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 27.6 (4.9) | 27.5 (4.9) | 27.8 (5.0) |
| Living with a partner, n (%) | 312 (82) | 152 (84) | 160 (80) |
| Education, high,* n (%) | 101 (26) | 57 (31%) | 44 (21%) |
| Hand-specific characteristics | |||
| Fulfilling ACR hand OA criteria, n (%) | 344 (90) | 153 (85) | 191 (95) |
| Erosive hand OA, n (%) | 113 (30) | 35 (20) | 78 (39) |
| Symptom duration (years)† | 5.5 (2.1–13.0) | 4.3 (1.6–9.3) | 7.2 (2.8–17.7) |
| AUSCAN hand pain (0–20) | 9 (4) | 9 (5) | 10 (4) |
| AUSCAN hand function (0–36) | 16 (8) | 15 (9) | 17 (10) |
| Tender joint count (0–30)* | 3 (1–6) | 3 (1–6) | 4 (2–8) |
| KL summated score (0–120)† | 16 (8–29) | 13 (5–21) | 22 (11–37) |
| General burden | |||
| Any comorbidity present, n (%) | 209 (55) | 88 (49) | 121 (61) |
| Amount of comorbidities† | 1 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) | 1 (0–1) |
| Fulfilling ACR hip OA criteria, n (%) | 30 (8) | 9 (5) | 21 (6) |
| Fulfilling ACR knee OA criteria, n (%) | 127 (33) | 53 (29) | 74 (37) |
| HADS total score (0–42)† | 7 (4–12) | 7 (3–10) | 7 (4–12) |
| Work characteristics | |||
| Retired, n (%) | 116 (31) | – | 116 (58) |
| Full work disability, n (%) | 24 (6) | 5 (3) | 19 (12) |
| Full work disability due to hand OA, n (%) | 6 (2) | 6 (3) | 0 (0) |
| Partial work disability, n (%) | 12 (3) | 8 (4) | 4 (2) |
| Partial work disability due to hand OA, n (%) | 6 (2) | 4 (2) | 2 (1) |
| Predominantly manual profession, n (%)‡ | 26 (9) | 11 (17) | 15 (8) |
Numbers represent mean (standard deviation) unless otherwise specified.
*Defined as having completed university-level education.
†Median (IQR).
‡Defined as a score of 5 or 6 on the scale by de Zwart et al.26
ACR, American College of Rheumatology; AUSCAN, Australian Canadian Osteoarthritis Hand Index; BMI, body mass index; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; KL, Kellgren-Lawrence; OA, osteoarthritis.