MedWire News: Musculoskeletal pain and osteoporosis are common in Cuban men and women, the results of a community-based study show.
Gil Reyes-Llerena (Centro de Investigaciones Médico Quirúrgicas, Havana, Cuba) and team carried out the study because information on the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in Cuba is scarce, but essential for implementing community intervention strategies.
They used the Community Oriented Program for the Control of Rheumatic Diseases (COPCORD) questionnaire, which has previously been applied in Chile, Mexico, and Brazil, to estimate the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints, burden of illness, and help-seeking behavior in 1238 men and 1917 women from an urban community in Havana City.
The researchers included additional questions to identify bone fractures associated with minimal trauma, and performed a structured physical examination in selected study participants.
They report that the overall prevalence of musculoskeletal pain was 43.9%, with significantly more women than men reporting pain. The knees (11.7%) and lower back (11.6%) were the most affected areas.
Osteoporosis was the most prevalent rheumatic disease, diagnosed in 20.4% of individuals. Gout was reported in 0.38% of participants, fibromyalgia in 0.22%, systemic lupus erythematosus in 0.06%, spondyloarthropathies in 0.19%, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 1.24%.
Bone fractures not related to trauma were found in 1.14% of patients, hip fracture being the most common at 30.5%.
The majority (65.4%) of patients had visited a general practitioner, 6.2% described some disability, and 17% reported self-medication.
Comparing their results with other COPCORD studies, Reyes-Llerena and co-investigators note that the prevalence of RA was higher in Cuba than in other Latin American countries but the prevalence of fibromyalgia was lower.
“Explanatory studies should be carried out to better understand these differences,” conclude the authors in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology.
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009
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