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Rheumatoid arthritis

How common is rheumatoid arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis is fairly rare.

About 1 in every 100 people in the United States have rheumatoid arthritis.

Source:
Lawrence RC, Helmick CG, Arnett FC, et al.
Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and selected musculoskeletal disorders in the United States.
Arthritis and Rheumatism. 1998; 41: 778-799.

¹ That means that about 2.1 million Americans have the disease.
Rheumatoid arthritis is more common among older people than younger people. As people get older, their chances of having the disease increase.
Almost three times as many women as men have rheumatoid arthritis.
The number of new cases of rheumatoid arthritis has gone down in the United States in the past few years, but we don't know why.

Source:
Lawrence RC, Helmick CG, Arnett FC, et al.
Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and selected musculoskeletal disorders in the United States.
Arthritis and Rheumatism. 1998; 41: 778-799.

¹

Sources for the information on this page:

Lawrence RC, Helmick CG, Arnett FC, et al.Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and selected musculoskeletal disorders in the United States.Arthritis and Rheumatism. 1998; 41: 778-799.

This information was last updated on Mar 06, 2009

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