ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2019 March;178(3):145-8

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.18.03718-X

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Prevalence of inflammatory back pain among health professionals in Cyprus

Mehtap TINAZLI ¹, Eda BECER ², Deniz GRANIT ¹, Deniz AYDIN ³, Servet AKAR ⁴, Levent CERIT ⁵ ✉

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus; ² Department of Biochemistry, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus; ³ Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus; ⁴ Department of Rheumatology, Katip Çelebi University, İzmir, Turkey; ⁵ Department of Cardiology, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

BACKGROUND: To determine the prevalence of inflammatory back pain (IBP) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) using the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) classification criteria among the health professionals in Nicosia.
METHODS: In the first step, a face-to-face interview was conducted using a standard questionnaire form to investigate IBP with 189 health professionals who were working at Near East University Hospital. Additionally, persons with back pain for ≥3 months and age at onset <45 years were evaluated for axSpA using the ASAS criteria.
RESULTS: There were 60 (31.7%) male and 129 (68.2%) female subjects (mean age: 38.2 years). Two subjects (1.05%) were classified as having IBP according to the ASAS criteria (1.6% male gender, 0.7% female gender). After detailed evaluation, the prevalence of IBP 1.05%, not found ankylosing spondylitis. The prevalence of axSpA was estimated at 1.8% according to the ASAS classification criteria.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to investigate the prevalence of IBP and axSpA using ASAS classification criteria in Cyprus. Our study results reported here are within the higher than other studies in European countries and the USA but they are similar to Turkey. A minimal male predominance was noted among SpA patients.

KEY WORDS: Back pain - Spondylarthritis - Health personnel