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Posted on 07.19.02
Alabama Arthritis Survey
By Jason Oliveri, MPH
Arthritis affects almost 43 million Americans and is a leading cause of disability in the United States. Although "arthritis" includes many different disorders, the most common arthritic conditions are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and gout.
As a leading cause of disability among U.S. adults, arthritis limits everyday activities for more than 7 million Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), by 2020, an estimated 12 million Americans will be limited in some of their daily activities because of arthritis. The impact of these limitations will be greatest among the elderly.
The CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a standard phone survey used by all 50 states to collect health information from adults, is the main source arthritis data for each state. BRFSS information helps to monitor trends, define the burden of arthritis, and assess the effects of arthritis symptoms on quality of life. The BRFSS information has identified a particularly high arthritis burden in the Southeast U.S.
Interested in understanding these regional differences, Drs. Kenneth Saag and Ted Mikuls at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) CERTs are studying factors associated with the care of people in Alabama with arthritis. Through a CDC-sponsored partnership that includes the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, the Alabama High Risk Arthritis Survey seeks to better understand the roles that race, ethnic background, and community (urban versus rural) may play in the type of care provided for people with arthritis.
Similar to the BRFSS, a computer-assisted telephone interview was conducted among a random sample of eligible households in one urban and five rural counties in Alabama. Households were considered eligible if they contained at least one person over the age of 50 who had arthritis. More than 15,000 eligible households were identified from January to December 2001. Of those screened, 2571 eligible respondents were contacted, of which 55% completed the 30-minute survey.
Formal analyses of the survey responses are underway. In the meantime, the UAB CERTs has submitted an abstract of the results to the American College of Rheumatology, for presentation at their Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans in October. The results so far suggest that race, ethnic background, and community are indeed associated with the type of care received by older patients with arthritis.