Spondyloarthropathy in the community: differences in severity and disease expression in Alaskan Eskimo men and women

To determine the relative severity and compare the clinical expression of spondyloarthropathy (SpA) in men and women.

A clinical study was conducted in 43 women and 40 men who made up 80% of all individuals identified as having SpA in a community-wide epidemiologic study of Alaskan Eskimos. The study included interviews, physical, laboratory, radiographic and electrocardiographic examinations, record reviews, and functional assessments. A measure of relative severity was developed to evaluate disease impact in individual patients. The results in men and women were compared.

No significant differences between men and women were found in many features, including the age of onset, frequency of inflammatory joint swelling or inflammatory back pain, physical signs of sacroiliitis, presence of skin changes, or positive family history of SpA. Women were less likely to have sacroiliac joint fusion, advanced spinal changes, uveitis, severe cardiac conduction and valvular abnormalities, and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rates. According to our relative severity measure, a smaller proportion of women had severe disease than men.

Although as many women as men were affected by SpA in the communities studied, severe disease was seen more often in men and a number of disease manifestations were more frequent or more marked in men. These discrepancies in disease severity and expression may contribute to the underdiagnosis of SpA in women and the long standing impression that SpA is a disease predominantly of men.