Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders are public health issues in the entire world; their impact seems to be higher on elderly people.
Objective: To establish the prevalence and the functional impact of arthropathies on the elderly people from Mérida, Yucatán, México.
Material and methods: The SABE-PAHO survey was administered to a random sample of people older than 60 Mérida, Yucatán, México. Arthropathy was evaluated by self report; on the other hand, physical function was evaluated using the modified Katz's scale (basic activities of daily living, BADL) and the Lawton's scale (instrumental activities of daily living, IADL).
Results: 1747 patients (68.6% females, 31.4% males), aged 71.5 +/- 8.5 years old, were studied; 498 (28.5%; 95% CI = 26.4 to 30.6) had arthropathy. After logistic regression and adjustment for chronic obstructive lung disease, ischemic cardiopathy, and stroke presence or to be older than 80 were performed, arthropathy was found associated to BADL (p=0.03) as well to IADL (p=0.04) impairment.
Conclusions: The prevalence of arthropathy in elderly people from Mérida, México, was 28.5%, it was found to be independently associated to impairment for BADL and IADL.