## 4 Discussion  
In the current study, we explored the relationships between health antecedents such as disease severity, bilaterality, type of osteoarthritis (knee, hip, or both), medication use, and levels of physical activity and how these factors, along with their interactions, could explain the functionality reported by Chilean individuals with OA. Association between Age, Health Antecedents, Levels of Physical Activity, and Functionality Problems in Individuals with OA  
The results related to health antecedents referring to disease severity, bilaterality, type of osteoarthritis (knee, hip, or both), and medication use were evaluated in association with levels of physical activity and functionality problems. Previous research has shown that individuals who suffer from OA show higher levels of pain and lower levels of physical activity, and it may affect the functionality in this group of people [38], which is consistent with our results. Our findings showed that individuals with OA who suffered from higher levels of functionality problems performed lower levels of physical activity and had higher levels of pain and severity. Our results also revealed a significant relationship between greater impairment in functionality and elevated pain levels, which is in line with the existing literature. Previous studies have shown that a higher score on the Lequesne Index is associated with increased pain levels [39]. Furthermore, physical functionality, measured by the Lequesne Index, has been shown to be related to OA severity, assessed by the Kellgren-Lawrence Scale [40]. In turn, OA severity, according to this scale, shows a significant association with pain levels measured by the VAS scale [41]. In this context, our findings confirm that people with OA experience greater functionality problems when they have higher levels of severity and pain, which is characteristic of the disease [42; 43; 44]. However, surprisingly, physical activity levels did not correlate with severity or pain. This aspect deserves a detailed discussion since it is well documented that people with a higher degree of OA severity tend to move less, which negatively impacts their quality of life [45]. It has been shown that performing light exercise is associated with a reduction in pain and stiffness levels [46; 47]. On the other hand, it has been found that an intense level of physical activity in people with higher disease severity can affect functionality and increase pain [48]. From this perspective, it is striking that in our results, the levels of physical activity do not vary in people with OA according to laterality, the use of medication, or the coexistence of OA in the knee and hip. In a previous study by [PERSON] et al. [49], people with bilateral OA were found to perform less intense and moderate physical activity and were also more sedentary. It is possible that our results differed from their findings because they assessed different levels of physical activity whereas, in our sample, the level of general physical activity was measured. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c} \hline
**Variable** & **Estimate** & **SE** & **Standardized Beta** & **t** & \(p\) \\ \hline Intercept & \(-\)1.398 & 1.723 & \(-\) & \(-\)0.811 & 0.420 \\ Type of OA (both) & 0.371 & 0.493 & 0.052 & 0.753 & 0.454 \\ Severity disease & 1.925 & 0.628 & 0.247 & 3.068 & 0.003 \\ Pain level & 0.148 & 0.015 & 0.699 & 9.701 & \textless{}0.001 \\ Severity disease \(\times\) physical activity level & \(-\)0.416 & 0.160 & \(-\)0.195 & \(-\)2.597 & 0.011 \\ \hline \multicolumn{7}{l}{Adj. R\({}^{2}\) = 0.654; SE: Standard error} \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Summary of the regression model using the Lequesne Index scores (n = 80) as the dependent variable. The categorical factors include comparisons between each category and the reference category (indicated in parentheses).