Editorial
Comparing the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in China with the rest of the world
Clinical Epidemiology Research & Training Unit, 650 Albany Street, Suite X-200, Boston, MA 02118-2526, USA
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008, 10:106 doi:10.1186/ar2369
See related research by Zeng et al., http://arthritis-research.com/content/10/1/R17
Published: 25 February 2008Abstract
Geographic or ethnic differences in the occurrence of disease often provide insights into causes of disease and possible opportunities for disease prevention. Persons in China appear to have a consistently lower prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia than persons in the United States and Europe; reasons for these prevalence differences might include genetic differences, differences in environmental exposures or a combination of both. With increasing obesity, gout is becoming endemic in China. Finally, symptomatic knee osteoarthritis is extremely common in China and constitutes a major public health problem there.
