[Estimate of the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis based on a rheumatology study in the district of Angers].
The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis is generally estimated to be 1 per cent, despite the marked differences between the various results published according to the survey techniques and the epidemiological criteria employed. The present survey consisted of patients from the target population (the 248,009 inhabitants of Angers over the age of 15 years), who had been examined by one of the hospital or private rheumatologists working in Angers between 1960 and 1984 and who were considered to be suffering from inflammatory rheumatism. The cases of rheumatoid arthritis included in this survey were still alive and were living in Angers between January 1 and June 30 1984 and corresponded to at least two of the New York criteria. The prevalence determined according to this technique was 0.17 per cent for two criteria and 0.11 per cent for three criteria. After discussing the bias and the particular conditions of the study, it appears that these particularly low levels are essentially related to: a recruitment bias due to the limitation of the survey to patients seen by rheumatologists, to the choice of New York criteria and more especially of 3 criteria which increases the specificity of the survey at the expense of the sensitivity, to the long observation (mean of 10.4 years) which contributed to a reduction in the number of false positives. The validity of this study is supported by the comparison with the study by O'Sullivan et al. also based 2 New York criteria with a follow-up of 3 to 5 years, which concluded on a prevalence of 0.24 per cent compared with 0.17 per cent in Angers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Brégeon
C
C
Rolland
D
D
Canonne
F
F
Renier
J C
JC
Besson
J
J
Boasson
M
M
Chauvet
G
G
Fallah
N
N
Gardais
B
B
Marschal
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance
Estimation de la prévalence de la polyarthrite rhumatoïde à partir d'une étude en milieu rhumatologique dans l'arrondissement d'Angers.