Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis and diagnostic validity of a prediction score, in patients visiting orthropedic clinics in the Madinah region of Saudi Arabia: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Shabir Ahmad Mir; Mamdooh Noor; Md Dilshad Manzar; Bader Alshehri; Mohammed Alaidarous; Abdul Aziz Bin Dukhyil; Saeed Banawas; Yahya Madkhali; Sadaf Jahan; Faizan Z Kashoo; Danish Iqbal; Qamar Zia; Suliman A Alsagaby; Sahar ALDosari

doi:10.7717/peerj.14362

Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis and diagnostic validity of a prediction score, in patients visiting orthropedic clinics in the Madinah region of Saudi Arabia: a retrospective cross-sectional study

PeerJ. 2022 Nov 15:10:e14362. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14362. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Shabir Ahmad Mir^#¹, Mamdooh Noor^#¹, Md Dilshad Manzar², Bader Alshehri¹, Mohammed Alaidarous^{1

3}, Abdul Aziz Bin Dukhyil¹, Saeed Banawas^{1

3

4}, Yahya Madkhali¹, Sadaf Jahan¹, Faizan Z Kashoo⁵, Danish Iqbal¹, Qamar Zia^{1

3}, Suliman A Alsagaby¹, Sahar ALDosari¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Applied Medical Science, Majmaah University, Al Majmaah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Science, Majmaah University, Al Majmaah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Health and Basic Sciences Research Center, Majmaah University, Al Majmaah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States.
⁵ Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Science, Majmaah University, Al Majmaah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: In Saudi Arabia, the epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not well studied and is marked by inconsistencies in clinical diagnosis. Therefore, in this study, we explored the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and diagnostic validity of a prediction score based upon disease markers in orthropedic clinics' patients in the Madinah region of Saudi Arabia.

Method: The clinical data for this retrospective cross-sectional study were retrieved from the database registry of orthopedic clinics in selected hospitals of the Medinah province of Saudi Arabia. Sociodemographic features, disease markers and the clinical characteristics were collected for a period of 6 months, from December 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. The prediction score was generated from the sum of disease markers, coded as dichotomous variables.

Results: The total sample size of our study was 401. The prevalence of RA in the study subjects (n = 401) was 14.46% (n = 58). Among RA patients, the majority were females (60.3%). Painful joints (69%) and swollen joints (51.7%) were the most common clinical complaints among RA patients. RA patients suffered from arthritis (51.7%) and experienced fatigue (46.6%), weight loss (44.8%), and loss of appetite (41.4%). Diabetes (55.2%) was the most common comorbidity in the RA patients. The sensitivity and specificity of the prediction score at the criterion score of 2.5 were 67.3% and 63.0%, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.69 (95% CI [0.62-0.76]).

Conclusion: There was a moderately high prevalence of RA in patients visiting the orthropedic clinics of the selected hospitals of Madinah region of Saudi Arabia. The diagnostic validity of the prediction score, though promising, was slightly lower than the acceptable range.

Keywords: Clinical presentation; Co-morbidity; Diagnosis; Disease marker; Rheumatoid arthritis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / diagnosis
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies
Saudi Arabia / epidemiology

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia, Project number R-2022-320. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.