Epidemiology of knee osteoarthritis in general practice: a registry-based study.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated (1) trends in the prevalence and incidence of knee osteoarthritis over a 20-year period (1996-2015); (2) trends in multimorbidity and (3) trends in drug prescriptions. DESIGN: Registry-based study. SETTING: Primary healthcare, Flanders, Belgium. PARTICIPANTS: Data were collected from Intego, a general practice-based morbidity registration network. In the study period between 1996 and 2015, data from 440 140 unique patients were available. OUTCOME MEASURES: Trends in prevalence and incidence rate of knee osteoarthritis were computed using joinpoint reg... Mehr ...