Prevalence of knee osteoarthritis in rural areas of Bangalore urban district

Abstract

Background

Osteoarthritis is a common arthropathy of the knee. In India, the prevalence of the disease in the adult rural population is estimated to be 5.8%.

Aim

To measure the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis among adults in a rural area and to study the risk factors associated with knee osteoarthritis in the study population. To compare the EULAR 2009 criteria with the modified clinical criteria given by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) for the diagnosis of primary osteoarthritis of the knee joint.

Materials and methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted across seven villages coming under a sub-center, from December 2011 to January 2012. A total of 342 subjects were selected by stratified random sampling. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to estimate the prevalence and associated risk factors of osteoarthritis based on EULAR 2009, modified ACR criteria, anthropometry, and clinical examination of the knees. The data was analyzed using standard statistical software.

Results

The mean age of the population was 42.56 ±16.5 years. The corresponding prevalence of osteoarthritis calculated using the ACR and the EULAR 2009 criteria were 17% and 5.6% in the adult population and 54.1% and 16.4% in the elderly. The etiological factors found to be associated with osteoarthritis are age (P <0.0001), poor education (P <0.0001), previous knee injury (P = 0.046), and regular climbing of stairs (P <0.0001).

Conclusion

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common rheumatologic problems. The risk factors of the disease are advancing age, lower socioeconomic strata, lesser education, previous knee injury, and regular climbing of stairs. Female predisposition was seen in the elderly, but not in younger patients with osteoarthritis. The epidemiological data reported should be interpreted based on the tool used since the criteria are moderately overlapping.