Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 23:9:881391.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.881391. eCollection 2022.

The Burden of Osteoarthritis in the Middle East and North Africa Region From 1990 to 2019

Ali Shamekh  1 , Mahasti Alizadeh  1 , Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi  2   3 , Mark J M Sullman  4   5 , Jay S Kaufman  6 , Gary S Collins  7   8 , Ali-Asghar Kolahi  9 , Saeid Safiri  10
Affiliations

The Burden of Osteoarthritis in the Middle East and North Africa Region From 1990 to 2019

Ali Shamekh et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to report the most current data on the prevalence, incidence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) associated with osteoarthritis (OA) for the 21 countries and territories located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from 1990 to 2019 by age, sex, cause, and sociodemographic index (SDI).

Methods: Publicly available data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study were used to report the OA-related burden. Estimates are reported as counts and age-standardized rates, along with their corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs).

Results: In 2019, the age-standardized prevalence of OA in MENA was 5,342.8 per 100,000 (95% UI: 4,815.9-5,907.8), which is 9.3% higher than in 1990 (8.1-10.5%). Similarly, the age-standardized annual incidence of OA per 100,000 was 430.4 (382.2-481.9), demonstrating a 9.4% increase since 1990 (8.3-10.5). OA was the cause of 185.4 (92.8-370.2) age-standardized YLDs per 100,000 in 2019, which was 10% higher than in 1990 (8.7-11.4). Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran had the highest OA burden in MENA, while Yemen, Afghanistan, and Sudan had the lowest burden. In all MENA countries, OA affected more women than men, had an increasing burden with increased age, and had the highest impact on the knee, hip, and hand joints, respectively. OA was also positively associated with the SDI.

Conclusion: The burden of OA increased over 1990-2019 in the MENA region. The study emphasizes the importance of early preventative approaches in order to control any future health, economic, and quality of life crises imposed by OA in this region.

Keywords: Eastern Mediterranean; burden; epidemiology; incidence; osteoarthritis; prevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Numbers of prevalent cases and prevalence of osteoarthritis per 100,000 population in the Middle East and North Africa region, by age and sex in 2019. Dotted and dashed lines indicate 95% upper and lower uncertainty intervals, respectively (generated from data available from http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ratio of the Middle East and North Africa region to the global osteoarthritis YLD rate according to age group and sex, 1990–2019. YLD, years lived with disability (generated from data available from http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Numbers of prevalent cases and prevalence for osteoarthritis per 100,000 population in the Middle East and North Africa region, by age and cause in 2019 (generated from data available from http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Age-standardized YLD rates of osteoarthritis for 21 countries and territories, by SDI in 2019; Expected values based on the Socio-demographic Index and disease rates in all locations are shown as the black line. Each point shows the observed age-standardized YLD rate for each country in 2019. YLD, years lived with disability; SDI, Socio-demographic Index (generated from data available from http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hunter DJ, Bierma-Zeinstra S. Osteoarthritis. Lancet. (2019) 393:1745–59. 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30417-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bacon K, LaValley MP, Jafarzadeh SR, Felson D. Does cartilage loss cause pain in osteoarthritis and if so, how much? Ann Rheum Dis. (2020) 79:1105–10. 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217363 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pereira D, Peleteiro B, Araújo J, Branco J, Santos RA, Ramos E. The effect of osteoarthritis definition on prevalence and incidence estimates: a systematic review. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. (2011) 19:1270–85. 10.1016/j.joca.2011.08.009 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Katz JN, Arant KR, Loeser RF. Diagnosis and treatment of hip and knee osteoarthritis: a review. JAMA. (2021) 325:568–78. 10.1001/jama.2020.22171 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Glyn-Jones S, Palmer AJ, Agricola R, Price AJ, Vincent TL, Weinans H, et al. . Osteoarthritis. Lancet. (2015) 386:376–87. 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60802-3 - DOI - PubMed