A Prevalence Study of Chronic Widespread Pain (CWP) Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Control Population Matched by Gender, Age and Place of Residence in Tallinn and Harjumaa County

The chronic widespread pain (CWP) and fibromyalgia (FM) cause serious discomfort, but at the same time they are not life threatening and they cannot be detected by any laboratory tests. The problems connected with these conditions have gained little attention in Estonia so far. It can be assumed that the CWP and FM often remain undetected and the sufferers live without treatment they need.

So far, there are no data on the prevalence of the CWP and FM in Estonia available.

The goal of the current research is to assess the prevalence of the CWP and local pain syndromes among Estonia's RA patients and among the control population in Tallinn and Harju County; also the factors connected with the presence of the pain and the pain treatment in use.

At the same time there will be a similarly designed research conducted in Jyväskylä Central Hospital, which provides the opportunity to compare results in Estonia's and Finland's research groups. The study on the distribution of the chronic pain among RA patients and control population will allow to assess the magnitude of the problem in Estonia and to raise the awareness of physicians about CWP and significance of its treatment.

Performing the study will provide an experience which forms the base for further epidemiological and clinical research on CWP and FM