Chronic Knee Pain Study

Specific Aims: 1) To examine differences between AA and white patients with knee OA in
willingness to consider knee joint replacement. 2) To examine the relationship between
socio-cultural factors and patient willingness to consider joint replacement. 3) To examine
how demographic, socio-cultural, and clinical factors mediate the relationship between race
and patient willingness. 4) To examine the relationship between patient willingness and
referral to orthopedic care for knee OA (secondary aim).

Experimental design/Methodology: A cross-sectional survey study design will be used to
examine socio-cultural and clinical factors that may vary by race/ethnicity and may be
determinants of willingness to consider joint replacement as a treatment option. Patients
with symptomatic and radiographic knee OA from the primary care clinics will be surveyed.
Only individuals with knee OA of sufficient severity that would be considered candidates for
joint replacement will be included. Analytic strategies include ordinal logistic
regression, path analysis, and regression trees.

Subject population: The study sample will consist of approximately 133 African American and
419 white patients with OA of the knee in a primary care setting.