[Epidemiologic aspects of disability caused by rheumatic diseases in the Gera district, East Germany].

In the period 1968-1977, the mean annual invalidization rates due to rheumatic diseases in the district of Gera are 36.6 for the female insured population, 19.3 for the male one, per 10(5) persons. After the age of 40, invalidization rates are rising steeply. Degenerative arthropathies (osteoarthroses and displacements of the intervertebral disk or vertebrogenic pain syndromes) constitute more than four fifths of all first-time invalidizations. First-time invalidization was done, on average, 7 years before reaching the age-limit provided by law for old-age pension, in one third temporally limited. The longitudinal monitoring of the invalidzation rates supports the hypothesis that clinical manifestations of degenerative arthropathies are increasing.