ABSTRACT

To review the epidemiology of rheumatic diseases in Turkey and also to briefly discuss how it compares to other countries.

Studies, which investigate the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in a Turkish population and which were published in peer reviewed journals, including those currently not indexed in any of the major bibliographic databases, were reviewed.

Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Turkey seems to be less than 0.5% as indicated by two studies from Izmir and Antalya. This prevalence is in the range of those reported from South Europe. The higher rates reported from the Black Sea region should be regarded with a high degree of caution until replicated by studies with stronger designs. Prevalence of ankylosing spondylitis in Turkey (0.49%) seems to be similar to that of RA, whereas overall prevalence of spondyloarthritis (1.05%) appears to be higher than RA as in Italy, Lithuania, and China. Behçet's disease (BD) and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) are relatively common in Turkey as compared to other parts of the world. Rates for BD have been reported to range from 0.02% to 0.42%, and for FMF to range from 0.027 to 0.82%. In the multicomponent epidemiologic study in Izmir the prevalence of Sjögren syndrome (according to American-European criteria) and of gout were reported as, 0.15% and 0.33%, respectively.

Epidemiologic studies on rheumatic diseases in Turkey are quite limited. All studies were conducted in local populations and nationwide occurrence data for adults is not available for any rheumatic disease.