RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The aging of the world population is a phenomenon that is growing progressively. Specific knowledge of osteoarticular disorders in the elderly in black Africa seems limited. AIM: Describe the epidemiological, clinical and etiological characteristics of non-traumatic osteoarticular disorders in elderly black Africans. METHODS: Retrospective and descriptive study concerning black africans patients aged 60 years and over hospitalized in the department of Rheumatology of hospital center of Cocody (Abidjan) in a period of 7 years from January 2000 to December 2007. Were included, 157 records of black africans patients, suffering from a osteoarticular disorder non traumatic with an accurate diagnosis. A structured questionnaire was used to gather epidemiological, clinical and etiological characteristics. RESULTS: The prevalence of elders was 5% of all patients seen in the period of study. The average age was 67 years with the predominance of women (59,7%) and sex-ratio was 0,68. Housewives were predominant (40,6%). The reason for hospitalization was a pain from spine (85,8%) dominated by common low back pain (84,4%). Fever (51,9%) and impaired general health (53.4%) were dominant extraarticular signs. The main etiologies were degenerative (50.5%) with a predominance of common low back pain (38.2%), followed by bacterial osteitis and/or bacterial arthritis (20.5%) and malignancies (hematologic malignancies and metastasis of cancer) in 15.9% of cases. Degenerative pathology was significantly observed in females (p=0.004). CONCLUSION: Non-traumatic osteoarticular diseases in elderly black africans are little frequent in Abidjan and are dominated by degenerative diseases of spine.
