Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 2003 Jul;62(7):644–650. doi: 10.1136/ard.62.7.644

Prevalence of self reported musculoskeletal diseases is high

H Picavet 1, J Hazes 1
PMCID: PMC1754612  PMID: 12810427

Abstract

Objectives: To present the prevalence of self reported musculoskeletal diseases, the coexistence of these diseases, the test-retest reliability with six months in between, and the association with musculoskeletal pain symptoms.

Methods: Twelve layman descriptions of common musculoskeletal diseases were part of the questionnaires of a prospective cohort study of a random sample in the general Dutch population aged 25 years or more (baseline: n=3664, follow up after six months: n=2338). Data collection also included information about pain relating to five different anatomical areas.

Results: Osteoarthritis of the knee (men 10.1%, women 13.6%) was amongst the most reported musculoskeletal diseases, whereas the figures for self reported rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were 1.6% and 4.6% for men and women, respectively. The coexistence of these diseases is high: 47 of the 66 combinations were reported more often than would be expected if they were independent of each other (p<0.05). For most diseases the test-retest reliability was good (κ between 0.6 and 0.8), but for repetitive strain injury (κ=0.37) and chronic arthritis other than RA (κ=0.44) the agreement was fair to moderate. All complaints of pain were more often reported by those with musculoskeletal diseases than those without those diseases, and the pain pattern was disease-specific.

Conclusions: Self reported musculoskeletal diseases are highly prevalent, with a fair to good reliability and a disease-specific pain pattern. Health surveys are a limited but valuable source of information for this group of health problems, which is not available from most other sources of information.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (183.2 KB).

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Open in a new tab

Prevalence of self reportedmusculoskeletal diseases by age group. (A) Age dependent and non-age dependent diseases; (B) age related diseases.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allander E. Prevalence, incidence, and remission rates of some common rheumatic diseases or syndromes. Scand J Rheumatol. 1974;3(3):145–153. doi: 10.3109/03009747409097141. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Badley E. M., Rasooly I., Webster G. K. Relative importance of musculoskeletal disorders as a cause of chronic health problems, disability, and health care utilization: findings from the 1990 Ontario Health Survey. J Rheumatol. 1994 Mar;21(3):505–514. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Badley E. M., Webster G. K., Rasooly I. The impact of musculoskeletal disorders in the population: are they just aches and pains? Findings from the 1990 Ontario Health Survey. J Rheumatol. 1995 Apr;22(4):733–739. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bennett R. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and myofascial pain. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 1998 Mar;10(2):95–103. doi: 10.1097/00002281-199803000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Brage S., Bjerkedal T., Bruusgaard D. Occupation-specific morbidity of musculoskeletal disease in Norway. Scand J Soc Med. 1997 Mar;25(1):50–57. doi: 10.1177/140349489702500111. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Burger H., van Daele P. L., Algra D., van den Ouweland F. A., Grobbee D. E., Hofman A., van Kuijk C., Schütte H. E., Birkenhäger J. C., Pols H. A. The association between age and bone mineral density in men and women aged 55 years and over: the Rotterdam Study. Bone Miner. 1994 Apr;25(1):1–13. doi: 10.1016/s0169-6009(08)80203-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Cohen G., Forbes J., Garraway M. Interpreting self reported limiting long term illness. BMJ. 1995 Sep 16;311(7007):722–724. doi: 10.1136/bmj.311.7007.722. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gram I. T., Riise T., Honda Y. Rheumatoid arthritis: a commonly misused diagnosis by the general population. Clin Rheumatol. 1997 May;16(3):264–266. doi: 10.1007/BF02238961. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Harris C. M., Lloyd D. C., Lewis J. The prevalence and prophylaxis of gout in England. J Clin Epidemiol. 1995 Sep;48(9):1153–1158. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(94)00244-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Heliövaara M., Aromaa A., Klaukka T., Knekt P., Joukamaa M., Impivaara O. Reliability and validity of interview data on chronic diseases. The Mini-Finland Health Survey. J Clin Epidemiol. 1993 Feb;46(2):181–191. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(93)90056-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Heliövaara M., Impivaara O., Sievers K., Melkas T., Knekt P., Korpi J., Aromaa A. Lumbar disc syndrome in Finland. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1987 Sep;41(3):251–258. doi: 10.1136/jech.41.3.251. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Helmick C. G., Lawrence R. C., Pollard R. A., Lloyd E., Heyse S. P. Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions: who is affected now, who will be affected later? National Arthritis Data Workgroup. Arthritis Care Res. 1995 Dec;8(4):203–211. doi: 10.1002/art.1790080403. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hill C. L., Parsons J., Taylor A., Leach G. Health related quality of life in a population sample with arthritis. J Rheumatol. 1999 Sep;26(9):2029–2035. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kvien T. K., Glennås A., Knudsrød O. G., Smedstad L. M. The validity of self-reported diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis: results from a population survey followed by clinical examinations. J Rheumatol. 1996 Nov;23(11):1866–1871. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lawrence R. C., Helmick C. G., Arnett F. C., Deyo R. A., Felson D. T., Giannini E. H., Heyse S. P., Hirsch R., Hochberg M. C., Hunder G. G. Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and selected musculoskeletal disorders in the United States. Arthritis Rheum. 1998 May;41(5):778–799. doi: 10.1002/1529-0131(199805)41:5<778::AID-ART4>3.0.CO;2-V. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lee P., Helewa A., Smythe H. A., Bombardier C., Goldsmith C. H. Epidemiology of musculoskeletal disorders (complaints) and related disability in Canada. J Rheumatol. 1985 Dec;12(6):1169–1173. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Manton K. G., Stallard E., Corder L. Changes in morbidity and chronic disability in the U.S. elderly population: evidence from the 1982, 1984, and 1989 National Long Term Care Surveys. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1995 Jul;50(4):S194–S204. doi: 10.1093/geronb/50b.4.s194. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Miles T. P., Flegal K., Harris T. Musculoskeletal disorders: time trends, comorbid conditions, self-assessed health status, and associated activity limitations. Vital Health Stat 3. 1993 Jan;(27):275–288. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Picavet H. S. National health surveys by mail or home interview: effects on response. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2001 Jun;55(6):408–413. doi: 10.1136/jech.55.6.408. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Picavet H. S., van den Bos G. A. The contribution of six chronic conditions to the total burden of mobility disability in the Dutch population. Am J Public Health. 1997 Oct;87(10):1680–1682. doi: 10.2105/ajph.87.10.1680. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Pincus T., Callahan L. F., Burkhauser R. V. Most chronic diseases are reported more frequently by individuals with fewer than 12 years of formal education in the age 18-64 United States population. J Chronic Dis. 1987;40(9):865–874. doi: 10.1016/0021-9681(87)90186-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Pope D. P., Croft P. R., Pritchard C. M., Silman A. J. Prevalence of shoulder pain in the community: the influence of case definition. Ann Rheum Dis. 1997 May;56(5):308–312. doi: 10.1136/ard.56.5.308. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Reynolds D. L., Chambers L. W., Badley E. M., Bennett K. J., Goldsmith C. H., Jamieson E., Torrance G. W., Tugwell P. Physical disability among Canadians reporting musculoskeletal diseases. J Rheumatol. 1992 Jul;19(7):1020–1030. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Star V. L., Scott J. C., Sherwin R., Lane N., Nevitt M. C., Hochberg M. C. Validity of self-reported rheumatoid arthritis in elderly women. J Rheumatol. 1996 Nov;23(11):1862–1865. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Tugwell P., Chambers L., Torrance G., Reynolds D., Wolfson M., Bennett K., Badley E., Jamieson E., Stock S. The population health impact of arthritis. POHEM Workshop Group. J Rheumatol. 1993 Jun;20(6):1048–1051. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wang P. P., Elsbett-Koeppen R., Geng G., Badley E. M. Arthritis prevalence and place of birth: findings from the 1994 Canadian National Population Health Survey. Am J Epidemiol. 2000 Sep 1;152(5):442–445. doi: 10.1093/aje/152.5.442. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Wolfe F., Ross K., Anderson J., Russell I. J., Hebert L. The prevalence and characteristics of fibromyalgia in the general population. Arthritis Rheum. 1995 Jan;38(1):19–28. doi: 10.1002/art.1780380104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Woolf A. D., Akesson K. Understanding the burden of musculoskeletal conditions. The burden is huge and not reflected in national health priorities. BMJ. 2001 May 5;322(7294):1079–1080. doi: 10.1136/bmj.322.7294.1079. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Yelin E. Arthritis. The cumulative impact of a common chronic condition. Arthritis Rheum. 1992 May;35(5):489–497. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES