[Frequency of medical visits due to osteoarticular problems of the adult general population in Spain. EPISER2016 Study]

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of medical visits due to osteoarticular problems by the adult general population in Spain and its association with sociodemographic, anthropometric and lifestyle variables.

Method: Cross-sectional population-based study. Sample with 4916 subjects aged 20 years and over. A telephone questionnaire, with a question about medical visits due to osteoarticular problems, was used. To estimate the prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI), weights were calculated according to the probability of selection in each of the sampling stages.

Results: 28.9% (95%CI: 27.6-30.2) of the people reported having consulted a doctor in the last year because of osteoarticular problems. We observed an association with age, sex, level of education, and body mass index.