Knee joint alignment in the indigenous people of Sri Lanka

Objective: The objective of this study was to measure the knee joint alignment of the indigenous people of Dambana using the goniometer and compare with a control group of Sinhalese individuals.

 

Materials and Methods: Hundred adult volunteers, from the population of “veddas” living in Dambana and 100 adult Sinhalese volunteers above the age of 25 were recruited for the study. Weight and height of the subjects were measured and the BMI calculated using the Quetelets index. The knee joint alignment was measured using the goniometer according to the method described by Kraus et al. (2005).

 

Results: Indigenous people included 46 females and 54 males with an age range of 26 to 75 years. The control sample consisted of 50 females and 50 males with an age range of 25 to 65 years. The BMI of indigenous people was 21.19 and that of the control population was 22.5. Indigenous people had a mean knee alignment angle of 182.4° and the control sample had a mean of 180.9°. None of the over 50 years population had clinical evidence of osteoarthritis (OA) in the indigenous group while in the control group, all females above 50 years had mild knee pain and 2 had clinically detectable OA.

 

Conclusions: Knee joint alignment in the indigenous population is closer to the normal range than in the control sample. Clinically detectable OA appears to be absent among the indigenous people.