Quality of Life in People With Unilateral Lower Limb Amputation at a Tertiary Rehabilitation Centre in Northern India: A Cross-Sectional Study

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2023-03, Vol.15 (3), p.e36985-e36985
• Main Authors: K, Deepak, Kumar, Dileep, Mishra, Sudhir R, Gupta, Anil K, Yadav, Ganesh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Amputation; Cross-sectional studies; Females; Illiteracy; Males; Middle schools; Orthopedics; Patients; Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; Prostheses; Psychiatry; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Rehabilitation; Secondary schools; Trauma
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.36985

Background and purpose The patients after amputation undergo a sudden transformation in their quality of life. In India, amputation done at the appropriate time is a rare phenomenon because usually, the patients present themselves at the later stages. The surgeons, however, while performing amputation surgeries, primarily consider saving the life of a patient under adverse conditions when patients report to them very late that the surgeries are carried out urgently. Assessing the quality of life (QOL) and the various sociodemographic factors affecting the QOL paves the way for future rehabilitation programs. Aims and objectives To evaluate the quality of life of subjects with unilateral lower limb amputation among the North Indian population. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in the tertiary rehabilitation center. A total of 106 Subjects were recruited. Informed consent was taken. WHOQOL-BREF contains 26 items covering four important aspects of QOL. The WHOQOL-BREF self-administered free questionnaire was used as a data collection tool, and the Hindi version downloaded from the WHO website was also used for those who can't understand English. Results The range of the physical domain, psychological domain, social domain, and environmental domain were 0 and 100. The mean score of different QOL transformed domain scores (on a scale of 100) were 47.91±20.12, 57.37±20.46, 59.36±25.32 and 51.50±21.96, respectively. Trauma was the leading cause of amputation, followed by diabetes mellitus, cancer, peripheral vascular disease, and other causes. Transtibial amputees were more in number compared to transfemoral. The percentage of male and female amputees was 78.30%, and 21.70%, respectively. Conclusion The physical domain was the most affected domain, followed by the psychological, social, and environmental domains. A delay in the prosthesis fitment aggravates the physical burden of amputees. Early prosthesis & psychological counseling will improve the QOL significantly.