Longer Term Effects of Total Knee Arthroplasty From a National Longitudinal Study

Objective: This study used data for 1996-2010 from a U.S. longitudinal sample of elderly individuals from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) merged with Medicare claims data to assess changes in several dimensions of physical functioning and general health up to 68 months following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) receipt. Method: Using propensity score matching, we assessed outcomes at follow-up for Medicare beneficiaries receiving TKA and a comparable group of beneficiaries with the same osteoarthritis diagnoses (controls). Results: Receipt of TKA was most often associated with improvements in physical functioning, especially in physical functioning measures most directly related to the knee. General health of TKA recipients only improved relative to controls on 1 of the 3 study general health measures. Discussion: Improvements in physical functioning of TKA recipients persisted in this longer term analysis of outcome in a nationally representative population study.