The patterns and prevalence of hand osteoarthritis in a population of disabled older women: The Women's Health and Aging Study.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence of hand osteoarthritis (OA) by joint site, joint count and severity in a representative population of older disabled women.


METHODS
1,002 moderately to severely disabled women aged > or = 65 years were selected from a representative population of community-dwelling women. Hand OA was established using a reproducible algorithm based on self-reported pain, standardized physical examinations, hand photographs, and physician questionnaire responses. OA was categorized as either symptomatic disease, intermittently symptomatic/ asymptomatic disease, possible disease, or no disease.


RESULTS
Symptomatic OA, requiring the presence of hand pain on most days for at least 1 month, occurred in approximately 23% of disabled older women in each age group, and most reported pain in the moderate to severe range. The prevalence of intermittently symptomatic/ asymptomatic OA was higher with increasing age. Finally, the most commonly affected hand OA sites were the distal interphalangeal (DIP) and the first carpometacarpal (CMC1) joint groups.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrate the very high prevalence of clinical hand OA in disabled older women and show that a large proportion of hand OA results in substantial symptoms.
Hirsch
R
R
National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9205, USA.
Guralnik
J M
JM
Ling
S M
SM
Fried
L P
LP
Hochberg
M C
MC
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006227:Hand Deformities, Acquired / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology