The Prevalence of Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Although rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of varying degrees of severity has been seen in our clinics, there is no statistical evidence of the magnitude of the problem in Saudi nationals. We conducted this study to determine the prevalence of RA in the Al Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia. Patients and Methods: Five thousand eight hundred and ninety-one Saudi adults, aged 16 years and over, were studied in a house-to-house survey in the Al Qassim Region. Results: Of the 5891 adults studied, 13 cases of RA were identified, using the criteria set for the diagnosis of RA by the American College of Rheumatology. Thirty-five percent of our patients showed positive rheumatoid factor. Conclusion:. The prevalence of RA in A1 Qassim was estimated at 2.2 per thousand people. It was also noted that the prevalence of the disease increased with age, and that it was more common in females. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic inflammatory disease in developed countries. The prevalence of RA varies from country to country, from 0.7% 1 to 3%, 2 with an average of 1% in the adult population. 3,4 In the Gulf region, two studies estimated the prevalence of RA to be 1% in the Iraqi population, 5 and 0.36% in the Omani population. 6It is important to know the magnitude of the problem in Saudi Arabia, because the disease has been shown to put an enormous economic burden on the health services in particular, and on the society in general. The disease has been described as the most common inflammatory arthritis in a hospital-based population study in Saudi Arabia, and appears to be less severe than those encountered in developed countries, 7 but the magnitude of the problem in the general population is not fully known. Materials and MethodsBecause of the logistic and practical problems in population surveys for RA, which require detailed clinical examinations, personal histories and radiological and serological investigations of the subjects involved, the study was limited to the Al Qassim region in the Central part of Saudi Arabia. Based on the 1992 census figures, Qassim region has a population of 660,000, with a national growth rate of 5%, as estimated by the Ministry of Finance.We divided the region into three strata, according to the population density, as follows: large (>20,000 population), medium (5,000-20,000 population), and small (<5,000 population). Random samples were selected from each of the two large and medium-sized populations, while the third stratum of five villages was selected with probability proportionate to their size. Each village was treated as a cluster, and the number of households in each cluster or village was noted.The work was divided into three phases. During phase 1, a general practitioner and two nurses administered personal interviews to all inhabitants of the selected households. The main purpose of this was to identify individuals with symptoms of RA. In phase 2, trained nurses and paramedics administered a detailed questionnaire to all individuals identified in phase 1, with symptoms su...

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