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Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on April 19, 2005
Rheumatology 2005 44(7):932-938; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keh650
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

The burden of the rheumatic diseases in the general adult population of Greece: the ESORDIG study

A. A. Andrianakos, S. Miyakis1, P. Trontzas2, G. Kaziolas, F. Christoyannis, D. Karamitsos3, G. Karanikolas, P. Dantis and for the ESORDIG study group*

Rheumatic Disease Epidemiology Section, Hellenic Foundation for Rheumatological Research, 1 Third Department of Internal Medicine, Athens University Medical School, Sotiria Hospital, 2 Department of Rheumatology, 3rd Hospital of IKA and 3 Department of Rheumatology, Evangelismos Hospital, Athens, Greece.

Correspondence to: A. A. Andrianakos, Hellenic Foundation for Rheumatological Research, 8 Rodon Street, 153 51 Kantza Pallinis Attikis, Athens, Greece. E-mail: eire{at}otenet.gr


  Abstract

Objective. To estimate the burden of rheumatic diseases in terms of disability and health-care utilization in the Greek general adult population.

Methods. The study was conducted on the total adult population of seven communities (8547 subjects), as well as on 2100 out of 5686 randomly selected subjects in an additional two communities. Rheumatologists visited the participants at their homes to assess the prevalence of six morbidity indicators concerning disability and health-care utilization associated with rheumatic diseases or other major disease groups.

Results. The participation rate in the study was 82.1%. The prevalence of chronic health problems, long-term disability, short-term disability, physician office visits and prescription or non-prescription drug use due to rheumatic diseases in the total target adult population was 14.3, 4.3, 2.9, 2.8, 7.2 and 2.0%, respectively. Compared with all other major disease groups, rheumatic diseases were the most common cause of chronic health problems (38.7%), long-term disability (47.2%), short-term disability (26.2%) and physician office visits (20.5%), while they ranked second for the use of prescription (24.0%) or non-prescription drugs (17.7%). Rheumatic diseases were the main cause of morbidity in five out of six indicators in subjects aged ≤65 yr. Logistic regression analysis revealed an association of female gender, age ≥45 yr and obesity with almost all morbidity indicators related to rheumatic diseases.

Conclusion. These findings suggest that rheumatic diseases constitute a major public health problem and should be considered in planning undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, research and health-care services.

KEY WORDS: Rheumatic diseases, Burden, Disability, Health-care utilization, Impact, Musculoskeletal disorders

*In addition to the authors the following physicians are members of the ESORDIG study group: A. Georgountzos, E. Kaskani, L. Kontelis, P. Krachtis, Z. Nikolia, K. Pantelidou, E. Tavaniotou and E. Vafiadou.

Submitted 16 December 2004; revised version accepted 10 March 2005.
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