Epidemiology of lateral and medial epicondylitis in a military population.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the epidemiology of lateral and medial epicondylitis in the U.S. military.


METHODS
The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database was queried for ICD-9 codes 726.32 (lateral epicondylitis) and 726.33 (medial epicondylitis) for the years 1998-2006. Multivariate Poisson regression was used to calculate incidence rates (IR) and rate ratios (RR) among demographic groups.


RESULTS
The IRs for lateral and medial epicondylitis were 2.98 and 0.81 per 1000 person-years. For lateral epicondylitis, women had a higher incidence (RR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26). In both groups, analysis by age showed higher incidence in the > or = 40-year-old group. White compared with black race was a risk factor for both lateral (RR = 1.68, 95% CI, 1.63-1.74) and medial epicondylitis (RR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.05-1.17).


CONCLUSIONS
Female gender was a risk factor for lateral but not medial epicondylitis. Age greater than 40 and white race were significant risk factors for both conditions.
Wolf
Jennifer Moriatis
JM
Department of Orthopedics, University of Colorado-Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Mountcastle
Sally
S
Burks
Robert
R
Sturdivant
Rodney X
RX
Owens
Brett D
BD
D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013716:Tennis Elbow / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult