Endemic Kashin-Beck disease: A food-sourced osteoarthropathy

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is an endemic osteoarthropathy, which causes disability and heavy socioeconomic burdens. The preventive measures have been taken in the past few decades. However, recent KBD-epidemiological trend and comprehensive effect of its preventive measures need to be evaluated.

By employing typical survey, cross-sectional survey, case-control study, intervention trial, and national surveillance, the present study summarizes comprehensive role of KBD-preventive measures.

The endemic KBD is distributed in a long and narrow area of the world. The latest epidemic began in the late 1950s and lasted until the end of 1980s. Epidemiology of the KBD was characterized by early-onset, gender equality, agricultural area, regional discrepancy, family aggregation, annual fluctuation, etc. Multivariate regression analysis suggested that etiology of the KBD was food-related factors such as fungal contamination of grains, selenium deficiency, imbalance of protein intake, etc. A series of intervention measures for KBD control had been implemented since 1990s, and involved more than 300 million residents. National incidences were 22.1% in 1990, 16.0% in 1995, 12.3% in 2000, 5.5% in 2005, 0.38% in 2010, and 0.18 in 2015, respectively. Although new patients were annually decreased, it still affected 22,567,600 inhabitants and there were 574,925 patients in 2016.

Etiology of the KBD is food-sourced. Its decreased incidence may attribute to an effective implementation of preventive measures. It is possible to eradicate KBD from the earth in the near future.