Estimates of the Prevalence of Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Conditions in the United States. Part II

Overview

Journal Arthritis Rheum

Specialty Rheumatology

Date 2008 Jan 1

PMID 18163497

Citations 1684

Authors

Reva C Lawrence

David T Felson

Charles G Helmick

Lesley M Arnold

Hyon Choi

Richard A Deyo

Sherine Gabriel

Rosemarie Hirsch

Marc C Hochberg

Gene G Hunder

Joanne M Jordan

Jeffrey N Katz

Hilal Maradit Kremers

Frederick Wolfe

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To provide a single source for the best available estimates of the US prevalence of and number of individuals affected by osteoarthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis, gout, fibromyalgia, and carpal tunnel syndrome, as well as the symptoms of neck and back pain. A companion article (part I) addresses additional conditions.

Methods: The National Arthritis Data Workgroup reviewed published analyses from available national surveys, such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Health Interview Survey. Because data based on national population samples are unavailable for most specific rheumatic conditions, we derived estimates from published studies of smaller, defined populations. For specific conditions, the best available prevalence estimates were applied to the corresponding 2005 US population estimates from the Census Bureau, to estimate the number affected with each condition.

Results: We estimated that among US adults, nearly 27 million have clinical osteoarthritis (up from the estimate of 21 million for 1995), 711,000 have polymyalgia rheumatica, 228,000 have giant cell arteritis, up to 3.0 million have had self-reported gout in the past year (up from the estimate of 2.1 million for 1995), 5.0 million have fibromyalgia, 4-10 million have carpal tunnel syndrome, 59 million have had low back pain in the past 3 months, and 30.1 million have had neck pain in the past 3 months.

Conclusion: Estimates for many specific rheumatic conditions rely on a few, small studies of uncertain generalizability to the US population. This report provides the best available prevalence estimates for the US, but for most specific conditions more studies generalizable to the US or addressing understudied populations are needed.

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