Annual incidence of inflammatory joint diseases in a population based study in southern Sweden

November 7, 2002

Ann Rheum Dis 2002 Oct;61(10):911-5

Annual incidence of inflammatory joint diseases in a population based

study in southern Sweden.

Soderlin MK, Borjesson O, Kautiainen H, Skogh T, Leirisalo-Repo M.

Department of Internal Medicine, Vaxjo Central Hospital, 351 85 Vaxjo,

Sweden. maria.soderlin@...

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the annual incidence of inflammatory joint

diseases in a population based prospective referral study in an adult

population in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. METHODS: The patients

were referred from primary healthcare centres to the rheumatology

department in Vaxjo Central Hospital or to the one private

rheumatologist in Vaxjo participating in the study. Additionally, the

hospital records for patients with joint aspirates during the inclusion

period were checked. The patients were registered as incident cases if

the onset of the joint inflammation was between 1 May 1999 and 1 May

2000. A systematic follow up of incoming referrals was conducted up to

31 January 2001. Children under the age of 16 and patients with septic

arthritis, crystal arthropathies, and osteoarthritis were excluded from

the study. RESULTS: A total of 151 new cases with inflammatory joint

diseases were identified during one year, corresponding to a total

annual incidence of 115/100 000. Of these, 31 patients (21%) had

rheumatoid arthritis, the annual incidence being 24/100 000 (for women

29/100 000, and for men 18/100 000). Reactive arthritis was diagnosed in

37 patients (24%, annual incidence 28/100 000) and 54 patients had

undifferentiated arthritis (36%, annual incidence 41/100 000). Eleven

patients presented with psoriatic arthritis (7%, annual incidence 8/100

000). The incidence of Lyme arthritis was small in this non-endemic

area, and the incidence of sarcoid arthritis corresponded to that in

earlier studies. CONCLUSION: This is the first prospective population

based annual incidence study of early arthritis in Sweden. In this

population, 36% of the incident cases had undifferentiated arthritis,

whereas rheumatoid arthritis and reactive arthritis accounted for 45% of

the cases. The incidence figures compare well with figures reported from

other countries.

Publication Types:

a.. Multicenter Study

PMID: 12228162

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