الفهرس 
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Abstract
The primary objectives of the study are:
1- To determine the prevalence of all rheumatic diseases in the adult populations (15 year and over) of: Makosa village (rural area) of EL-Minia governorate.
2- To establish the prevalence of specific primary rheumatic diseases according to validated criteria. These are:
* Rheumatoid arthritis.
* Osteoarthritis (OA).
* Spondyloarthropathies (SPAs).
* Connective tissue diseases.
* Behcet’s Disease.
* Soft Tissue Rheumatism.
* Fibromyalgia.
* Crystal Induced Arthritis.
* Spinal Disorders.
The secondary objectives are:
1- To provide expert rheumatological diagnosis, care and advice for patients with rheumatic diseases in the community.
2- To implement all aspects of prevention of rheumatic disease at community level: primary by health education; secondary by early diagnosis and management; tertiary by referral to university hospitals.
3- To facilitate continuing medical rheumatology education for general practitioners and allied health professionals in the community.
4- To increase the awareness of policymakers, medical scientific community, health care providers and the general public of the importance and general prevalence of rheumatic diseases.
5- It is ultimate goal of this study as all WHO-ILAR-COPCORD studies to establish community care centers for rheumatic diseases recruitment of motivated physicians and allied professionals for specialist rheumatology training, relocation of local resources and, follow up visits of rheumatology specialists.
It is concluded that:
1- The prevalence of rheumatic diseases in rural Egypt is 16.2% knee and back pain resulting mostly from joint degeneration, was the commonest symptoms and caused the greatest burden of disease.
2- Osteoarthritis was the most common rheumatic diseases (8.5%) followed by soft tissue rheumatism (6.6%) and spinal disorders (6.4%).
3- The prevalence of RA in rural Egypt is 0.29%, similar to other oriental populations, but lower than western populations, while the prevalence of SLE were 60/ 100.000 which is higher as in European population and are amongst the higher prevalence of the disease reported in the world.
4- This study underlines the fact that, establishing the prevalence rate of rheumatic diseases is not only important for scientific curiosity; it also important implications for society. It is of interest that, 6 of 15 RA patients, one cases of lupus, 5 cases of SpAs patients were diagnosed for the first time during this study, although some of these patients had previously sought medical help.