Table 1.
Sociodemographic variables and clinical characteristics of 2,633 patients with rheumatic diseases and 649 healthy controls
| Sex (F/M) | Age (years) | Disease Duration (years) | Educational (years) | Comorbidity (number) | |
| Healthy controls (n. 649) | 401/248 | 51.88±13.90 | - | 11.2±3.9 | 0.87±1.4 |
| 1. Inflammatory rheumatic diseases | |||||
| Rheumatoid arthritis (n.572) | 387/185 | 57.6±14.5 | 6.7±4.5 | 11.3±3.5 | 2.0±1.6 |
| Peripheral psoriatic arthritis (n. 150) | 79/71 | 60.4±12.1 | 4.3±3.2 | 8.5±3.4 | 1.4±1.6 |
| Ankylosing spondylitis (n. 251) | 187/64 | 53.0±10.3 | 4.5±3.2 | 8.5±3.6 | 0.9±1.1 |
| 2. Connective tissue disorders | |||||
| Systemic sclerosis (n. 75) | 58/17 | 53.4±12.8 | 6.2±4.4 | 11.0±3.8 | 1.7±1.6 |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus (n.83) | 79/4 | 48.3±14.2 | 7.8±5.4 | 7.5±3.6 | 1.3±1.4 |
| Sjogren syndrome (n. 50) | 45/5 | 48.4±11.8 | 6.2±3.5 | 9.8±3.5 | 1.0±1.2 |
| 3. Symptomatic peripheral osteoarthritis | |||||
| Osteoarthritis of the knee (n. 176) | 105/71 | 69.7±9.1 | 4.9±3.2 | 6.6±2.5 | 1.1±1.5 |
| Osteoarthritis of the hip (n.136) | 79/57 | 67.4±11.6 | 5.1±3.1 | 8.4±3.4 | 1.5±1.5 |
| Osteoarthritis of the hand (n.87) | 61/26 | 66.3±9.5 | 6.7±4.6 | 9.4±4.0 | 0.9±1.0 |
| 4. Soft tissue disorders | |||||
| Fibromyalgia ((n. 226) | 198/28 | 50.4±10.2 | 5.9±4.0 | 9.2±3.81 | 2.2±1.8 |
| Low back pain (n. 141) | 97/44 | 59.7±14.4 | 4.7±3.6 | 7.6±3.05 | 1.3±1.5 |
| Shoulder pain (n. 112) | 59/53 | 52.4±12.4 | 3.5±2.8 | 8.2±3.64 | 0.9±1.0 |
| 5. Osteoporosis | |||||
| Osteoporosis with vertebral fractures (n. 402) | 403/0 | 71.1±7.9 | 8.3±3.0 | 1.9±1.5 | |
| Osteoporosis whitout vertebral fractures (n. 172) | 172/0 | 70.2±8.9 | 8.9±3.6 | 1.5±1.7 | |