OBJECTIVES:

Hip replacement surgery is one of the most common orthopaedic interventions performed in both public and private healthcare. The study aimed to investigate the impact of hip replacement surgery on the quality of life and to compare the quality-of-life outcomes by sociodemographic and surgical data in the Hungarian public and private hospitals.

METHODS:

Patients were selected at the Department of Orthopaedics, Clinical Centre of the University of Pécs and at the Da Vinci Private Clinic in Pécs, Hungary. Patients completed the Oxford Hip Score questionnaire before the surgery and 3 months later. We also evaluated socio-demographic data, disease and surgical conditions.

RESULTS:

128 people were included in our research, 60 patients from the public hospital, 68 patients from private hospital. We performed a comparison of the sociodemographic and surgical data, as well as the Oxford Hip Score preoperative and postoperative 3-month quality of life scores. Despite the different sociodemographic and surgical characteristics, all patients achieved a significant improvement based on quality-of-life scores by the end of the follow-up period (p<0.001). In the case of private patients, we observed a difference in the improvement of the quality of life between sexes (p=0.001) and according to educational level (p=0.021). Between the two healthcare areas, the change in the quality of life of those with different educational qualifications was not the same either (p=0.010). From the side of the public hospital, we found that patients with different occupations (p=0.049) and operated with different surgical indications (p=0.024) did not achieve the same level of improvement in quality-of-life results.

CONCLUSIONS:

Based on sociodemographic and surgical characteristics, quality of life improved differently in some cases, but always significantly by 3 months after hip replacement surgery in public and private patients.