Brighton S W, de la Harpe A L, van Staden D J, Badenhorst J H, Myers O L
Department of Rheumatology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
J Rheumatol. 1988 Mar;15(3):405-8.
We report the findings of an epidemiological study of the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a rural population. The study was conducted in Venda, a very remote part of South Africa. Much of the population still follows an age old traditional lifestyle. A detailed hut-to-hut survey of 543 respondents comprising 97% of the population of one village was conducted. This included clinical, serological and radiological studies. This was supplemented by questioning local traditional doctors and showing them photographs of typical hand deformities to ascertain if they knew of any cases with these deformities. The 3 hospitals draining the area were also surveyed. The detailed survey of 543 respondents revealed no cases of definite or probable RA using a modification of the Rome criteria. No cases were recognized by the traditional doctors. The 3 hospitals together had 14 cases of definite RA out of a population of about 520,000. This gave a prevalence of 0.0026%. The marked difference in the prevalence of RA in this population as opposed to other Southern African studies as well as American and European studies is discussed.
我们报告了一项关于农村人口类风湿关节炎（RA）患病率的流行病学研究结果。该研究在南非一个非常偏远的地区文达进行。这里的大部分人口仍沿袭古老的传统生活方式。我们对一个村庄97%的人口，即543名受访者进行了逐户详细调查。调查内容包括临床、血清学和放射学研究。此外，我们还询问了当地的传统医生，并向他们展示典型手部畸形的照片，以确定他们是否知晓有此类畸形的病例。我们还对该地区的3家医院进行了调查。对543名受访者的详细调查显示，采用改良的罗马标准，未发现确诊或可能患有RA的病例。传统医生也未识别出任何病例。在约52万人口中，这3家医院共确诊了14例RA病例。患病率为0.0026%。本文讨论了该人群中RA患病率与其他南非研究以及美国和欧洲研究相比存在显著差异的情况。
