Incidence of musculoskeletal pain in adult Kuwaitis using the validated Arabic version of the WHO-ILAR COPCORD Core Questionnaire

The WHO-ILAR Community Oriented Program for Control of Rheumatic Diseases [COPCORD] primarily aims to estimate the burden of musculoskeletal symptoms/disorders. We estimated the incidence of musculoskeletal pain in the first community-based COPCORD study in Kuwait. The validated Arabic version of the WHOILAR COPCORD Core Questionnaire was used in a survey of 2500 randomly selected Kuwaiti households to assess the frequency of musculoskeletal pain, disability, and health-seeking behavior in adult Kuwaitis. Those subjects reporting no musculoskeletal pain were identified and followed-up for a period of one year by contacting them every 2 weeks. Once a respondent reported pain, an appointment to report to hospital was offered and the subject was examined by a rheumatologist using American College of Rheumatology [ACR] criteria. Of 5159 adults who were non-complainers in an earlier prevalence phase of the study, 3341 responded to phone calls [response rate of 65%]. The incidence of musculoskeletal pain was 6.6% [95%CI, 3.4%- 9.7%]. Age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates were 7.2% [95%CI, 3.4%- 10.5%] for females and 6.1% [95%CI, 3.1%-9.2%] for males. The incidence rate increased with increasing age, body mass index, and with being married. The common sites of pain were knee, low back and shoulder. The incidence of musculoskeletal pain among Kuwaiti adults is reported for the first time. Further studies adopting the same instrument in other communities are warranted to compare with our findings