Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in Colombia based on information from the Ministry of Health registry

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and describe the main demographic characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis in adults in Colombia. Material and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using the data taken from the Integral Information System of Social Protection of the Ministry of Health during the years 2012 to 2016. Results: A total of 248,995 cases were identified, which gave an estimated prevalence of 0.52% in those older than 18 years of age. The large majority (80.7% were women, with a female: male ratio of 4.2: 1, and there was a higher prevalence in the 70 to 74 years age group. The departments with the highest number of cases were Bogota DC (64,121), followed by Antioquia (43,771), but the departments with the highest prevalence were Cesar (1.13%), Casanare (0.96%), and Risaralda (0.93%). Conclusions: Demographic and epidemiological information on rheumatoid arthritis in Colombia is presented. A similar prevalence is reported in other studies from the region, like Brazil (0.46%), Venezuela (0.4%), or Peru (0.55%), but lower than Argentina (0.94%) or Mexico (1.6%).