• Ragini Alok, Ragini Srivastava, Puneet Kumar, Siddharth K Das, Girdhar G Agarwal, and Pooja Dhaon.
• Department of Rheumatology, King Georges' Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
• Int J Rheum Dis. 2017 Nov 1; 20 (11): 1638-1647.

ObjectivesTo study the prevalence of rheumatic musculoskeletal symptoms in rural and urban areas of Lucknow.MethodThe survey was carried out in a cluster of rural (n = 5118) and urban (n = 5053) communities of Lucknow through a door-to-door survey. Demographic data were collected and subjects with musculoskeletal pain (MSK pain) were identified. A Hindi adapted version of the Community Oriented Program for the Control of Rheumatic Diseases questionnaire was used. Trained community volunteers completed the questionnaire.ResultsPresent and past MSK pain was the most common self-reported problem in urban areas (34.1%), while it was the third most common self-reported problem in rural areas (15.1%), after abdominal pain and cough. Females (214.9 and 419.5 per 1000) were more affected than males (118.8 and 265.2 per 1000) in rural and urban areas, respectively. Point prevalence of MSK pain (pain in last week) was higher in urban areas (28.2%) compared to rural areas (14.1%). In rural as well as urban areas, knee (rural: 49.3%, urban: 50.6%) and spine (rural: 56%, urban: 43.6%) were highly reported pain sites. Fatigue ([n] rural: 328, urban: 368) weakness ([n] rural: 310, urban: 324) and anorexia ([n] rural: 84, urban: 142) were most common systemic symptoms reported by urban as well as rural people. Urethritis/balanitis and ulcers in the mouth were the most common other symptoms reported by people in both the areas.ConclusionMSK pain is a predominant health problem of both rural and urban areas. Sex-adjusted prevalence is higher among females than males. Knee and back were highly prevalent pain sites in both rural and urban areas of Lucknow.© 2017 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

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