• Bader A Al-Mehmadi, May Musaad M Alelaiwi, Haya Sulaiman A Alnumayr, Basil Saeed Alghamdi, Bandar Abdullah Alomari, and Hayat Saleh Alzahrani.
• Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah, 11952, Saudi Arabia.
• Patient Prefer Adher. 2024 Jan 1; 18: 635647635-647.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to determine the general population's knowledge on the different symptoms of rheumatic diseases, the key factors for diagnosis delays from the patient's perspective, the length of delay from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis, and the effect this holds on the disease activity, response to therapy, and the development of complications and nonreversible deformities in patients diagnosed with rheumatic diseases.Patients And MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study. Our target study population were the residents of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected via an online questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS.ResultsThe overall prevalence of rheumatic disease in our cohort was 8.7%. Joint pain (75.7%), joint swelling (47.1%) and morning stiffness (32.9%) were the first and most common presenting symptom. Persistence of symptoms (N=32, 45.7%) and symptom worsening (N=21, 30.0%) was the predominant cause to visit rheumatologist. The duration between first symptom and rheumatic disease diagnosis is significantly longer for patients aged <50 years compared to that of those with ≥50 years of age. Results show that 36.4% of patients aged ≥50 years had delayed diagnosis due to late appointment compared with 5.7% of patients aged <50 years. In addition, patients with longer duration of symptoms were likely to have more visits to the rheumatologist. Most of the participants of <50 years significantly agreed that rheumatologists treat autoimmune diseases, only a few approved that they treat muscle problems.ConclusionMost participants in our study have lesser knowledge about their symptoms and they did not know where to consult for the treatment of their disease. This caused unnecessary delays and worsening and aggravation of the symptoms. There is an increased need to organize an awareness campaign in the general population regarding autoimmune and rheumatic diseases.© 2024 Al-Mehmadi et al.

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