Gäre B A
Department of Pediatrics, University of Göteborg, Sweden.
Curr Opin Rheumatol. 1996 Sep;8(5):449-54.
Major problems associated with interpreting and comparing epidemiologic studies on chronic arthropathies in children include the diversity of classification criteria and selection bias. A new set of classification criteria for peripheral arthritis in children, aiming toward defining biologically homogeneous subgroups, was recently proposed and should be further tested. Descriptive studies from all over the world are now emerging on childhood rheumatic diseases, increasing the potential for comparing the impact of genetic and environmental factors on disease frequency and manifestations. Awareness about pain syndromes in children, such as juvenile primary fibromyalgia and reflex sympathetic dystrophy, has increased, and this population now forms a substantial portion of clinic visits in pediatric rheumatology. The impact of the rheumatic diseases in children on disability and quality of life during childhood and in adult life is still to a large extent unknown and must be further studied in an epidemiologic context.
解读和比较儿童慢性关节病的流行病学研究存在的主要问题包括分类标准的多样性和选择偏倚。最近提出了一套针对儿童外周关节炎的新分类标准，旨在定义生物学上同质的亚组，应进一步进行测试。世界各地关于儿童风湿性疾病的描述性研究正在涌现，增加了比较遗传和环境因素对疾病频率和表现影响的可能性。对儿童疼痛综合征的认识有所提高，如青少年原发性纤维肌痛和反射性交感神经营养不良，这一群体现在在儿科风湿病门诊就诊中占相当大的比例。儿童风湿性疾病对儿童期和成年期残疾及生活质量的影响在很大程度上仍不为人知，必须在流行病学背景下进一步研究。
