Rheumatic diseases are among the most prevalent diseases recognized in the world. Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the main causes of disability around the world and expend a large amount of health care and social resources and have a substantial impact on the quality of life of those affected. To identify preventable risk factors and to gain insights into the burden of the diseases, it is important to know the prevalence and demographics of them. Herein we are to describe the pattern of different rheumatic disorders and characteristics of the patients attending in rheumatology clinics in Yazd, Iran, with addressing some different points of views in this regards.
In this retrospective study, medical records of all patients referred to two main referral rheumatology clinics in Yazd from March 2009 to February 2010 were reviewed. A questionnaire including sex, age, chief complaint, diagnoses, and co-morbid diseases was used for gathering the data.
All medical records were reviewed, of whom 5187 patients had specific diagnoses. The mean age of the patients was 38.57 year ± 19.4 SD. 70.81% were females and 29.19% were males. The most common diagnoses were: degenerative joint disease (58.33%), autoimmune disorders (17.88%), and soft tissue rheumatism (12.47%). The most frequent complaints were knee pain (32%). 55.6% of the patients were overweight (BMI >29) and 923 (17.8 %) of the patients had diabetes mellitus.
Our findings were similar to other studies from Iran and the other countries in most features. The prevalence of autoimmune disorders was rather higher than the other studies; this is perhaps due to our belief that some of periarthritis conditions were part of systemic autoimmune diseases by careful history taking and using pertinent laboratory investigations.