Low prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in Chinese. Prevalence survey in a rural community.

A prevalence survey for arthritis among the general adult population of a rural island off the coast of China revealed a prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of no more than 0.3% compared with 1.0% among Americans in the National Health Examination Survey (NHES). The frequency of clinical ankylosing spondylitis (AS) (0.2%) appears to be higher than expected, although limited data are available for comparison. No clinically unusual features of these diseases were recognized.