Relationships between measures of muscular performance, proprioceptive acuity, and aging in elderly women with knee osteoarthritis

Introduction: OA is a multifactorial condition, which predisposes elderly individuals to disabilities. Therefore, aging, especially in women, is considered to be a risk factor for the development and progression of this disease. The aging process and the presence of degenerative diseases lead to losses of strength and proprioceptive acuity. However, studies have reported conflicting results regarding the relationships between these variables. Moreover, it is unclear whether age remains an aggravating factor of these variables in individuals with knee OA. Objectives: To analyze the relationships between measures of muscular performance, proprioceptive acuity, and age in community-dwelling elderly women with knee OA. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 35 elderly women aged 65 years and over, who had a clinical diagnosis of unilateral or bilateral knee OA and were able to walk independently. The volunteers were tested for proprioceptive acuity (joint position sense and kinesthesia) and isokinetic muscular performance of the quadriceps and hamstrings on the isokinetic dynamometer Biodex System 3 Pro®. Descriptive statistics were carried out for all outcome variables and correlation coefficients were calculated with a significance level of α < 0.05. Results: No significant correlations were found between the measures of muscular performance and proprioceptive acuity. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between age and measures of strength and proprioception. Conclusions: The results suggested no significant relationships between measures of proprioceptive acuity and muscular performance of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles and, especially, no influences of age on these variables in elderly women with knee OA.