Authors
Igor Rudan, Simrita Sidhu, Angeliki Papana, Shi–Jiao Meng, Yu Xin–Wei, Wei Wang, Ruth M Campbell–Page, Alessandro Rhyll Demaio, Harish Nair, Devi Sridhar, Evropi Theodoratou, Ben Dowman, Davies Adeloye, Azeem Majeed, Josip Car, Harry Campbell, Wei Wang, Kit Yee Chan, Global Health Epidemiology Reference Group (GHERG
Publication date
2015/6
Journal
Journal of global health
Volume
5
Issue
1
Publisher
Edinburgh University Global Health Society
Description
Background
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the small joints of the body. It is one of the leading causes of chronic morbidity in high–income countries, but little is known about the burden of this disease in low–and middle–income countries (LMIC).
Methods
The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of RA in six of the World Health Organization's (WHO) regions that harbour LMIC by identifying all relevant studies in those regions. To accomplish this aim various bibliographic databases were searched: PubMed, EMBASE, Global Health, LILACS and the Chinese databases CNKI and WanFang. Studies were selected based on pre–defined inclusion criteria, including a definition of RA based on the 1987 revision of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) definition.
Results
Meta–estimates of regional RA prevalence rates for countries of low or middle income were 0.40%(95 …
Scholar articles
I Rudan, S Sidhu, A Papana, SJ Meng, Y Xin–Wei… - Journal of global health, 2015