The patterns and prevalence of hand osteoarthritis in a population of disabled older women: The Women's Health and Aging Study

Objective. To describe the prevalence of hand osteoarthritis (OA) by joint site, joint count and severity in a representative population of older disa bled women. Methods: 1002 moderately to severely disabled women aged greater than or eq ual to 65 years were selected from a representative population of community -dwelling women. Hand OA was established using a reproducible algorithm bas ed on self-reported pain, standardized physical examinations, hand photogra phs, and physician questionnaire responses. OA was categorized as either sy mptomatic disease, intermittently symptomatic/asymptomatic disease, possibl e disease, or no disease. Results: Symptomatic OA, requiring the presence of hand pain on most days f or at least 1 month, occurred in approximately 23% of disabled older women in each age group, and most reported pain in the moderate to severe range. The prevalence of intermittently symptomatic/asymptomatic OA was higher wit h increasing age. Finally, the most commonly affected hand OA sites were th e distal interphalangeal (DIP) and the first carpometacarpal (CMC1) joint g roups. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the very high prevalence of clinical hand OA in disabled older women and show that a large proportion of hand O A results in substantial symptoms. (C) 2000 OsteoArthritis Research Society International.