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Prevalence of axial spondylarthritis in the United States: Estimates from a cross‐sectional survey
Author(s) -
Reveille John D.,
Witter James P.,
Weisman Michael H.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
arthritis care and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.032
H-Index - 163
eISSN - 2151-4658
pISSN - 2151-464X
DOI - 10.1002/acr.21621
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , confidence interval , cross sectional study , population , national health and nutrition examination survey , prevalence , environmental health , pathology , sociology
Objective The US national prevalence of spondylarthritis (SpA) was estimated for 2 published sets of classification criteria: the Amor criteria and the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group (ESSG) criteria. These 2 SpA criteria sets have been the most widely utilized in previous population‐based studies of SpA. Methods The US SpA prevalence estimates were based on a representative sample of 5,013 US adults ages 20–69 years who were examined in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009–2010. Results The overall age‐adjusted prevalence of definite and probable SpA by the Amor criteria was 0.9% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.7–1.1%), corresponding to an estimated 1.7 million persons (95% CI 1.4–2.1 million persons). The age‐adjusted prevalence of SpA by the ESSG criteria was 1.4% (95% CI 1.0–1.9%), corresponding to an estimated 2.7 million persons (95% CI 1.9–3.7 million persons). There were no statistically significant sex differences in SpA prevalence. The SpA prevalence among non‐Hispanic white persons was 1.0% (95% CI 0.7–1.5%) by the Amor criteria and 1.5% (95% CI 1.0–2.3%) by the ESSG criteria. SpA prevalence could not be reliably estimated in other race/ethnicity subgroups due to sample size imitations. Conclusion The SpA prevalence estimates are in the range of SpA prevalence estimates reported elsewhere in population‐based surveys and it is likely that SpA may affect up to 1% of US adults, a prevalence similar to that reported for rheumatoid arthritis. The current US SpA prevalence estimates may be lower than the true value because the NHANES 2009–2010 data collection did not capture a complete set of the elements specified in the 2 SpA criteria sets.