Introduction

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease which affects mostly the various joints of the body. In some conditions, it can also affect the other systems of the body such as the eyes, skin, lungs, and even the heart and blood vessels related to it (Scott & Andkingsley, 2007). RA is one of the serious diseases of the body, which can impair primarily the synovial joints, which are structurally and functionally active (Swales, Wordsworth, & Luqmani, 2010). It is an autoimmune disorder which, by wrong feedback, the body's immune system attacks the own cells and tissues in the body leading to a deleterious impact on the targeted organ.

Being an autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis primarily damages the lining layers of the joints like the articular cartilages and the synovial membranes (Giles, Fert-Bober, & Park, 2012). Unlike the regular osteoarthritis of joints where the joints become wear and tear due to erosion, rheumatoid arthritis affects the synovial membrane and articular cartilage covering the joints without any wear and tear or erosion. But affects the normal tissues to undergo damage that can eventually result in erosion of bones, cartilages, etc., and leads to severe joint deformities (Smolen & Aletaha, 2015).

The inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis is what can damage other parts of the body as well (Hyndman, 2017). The major problem associated with RA is that it causes enormous joint pain due to severe inflammation of the joints. Though new types of medications have been under practice in the medical world, and also these therapeutic interventions have improved treatment options universally, severe rheumatoid arthritis can still cause physical disabilities for an individual (Kumar, 2016). Few common signs and symptoms include tender and warm joints which will be swollen and joint stiffness that is usually worse in the mornings, and after inactivity, fatigue, fever and loss of appetite are also recorded in some cases (Bingham & Andbartlett, 2020). As the RA disease progresses, symptoms often spread to the wrist, knees, ankles, elbows, hips and shoulders (Finckh, Alpizar-Rodriguez, & Roux-Lombard, 2017).

In most cases, the symptoms occur in the same joints on both sides of your body (Katz & Yelin, 1995). About 40% of the people who have rheumatoid arthritis also experience signs and symptoms that don’t involve the joints, Rheumatoid arthritis can affect many non-joint structures other than joints, they are skin, eyes, lungs, heart, kidney, salivary gland etc., (Sundbaum et al., 2020). Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms may vary in severity and may even come and go over time. It can cause joint deformities and shift out of place.

Many studies have been done on rheumatoid arthritis, like on its diagnosis, management and causes, where the majority of them agreed that women who smoke or having family history if those diseases are most commonly affected (Emery, 2011) and the likelihood of occurrence increase with the number of small joints. With the advancements in medicine, clinical outcomes seemed to improve dramatically and remission was made possible in many cases (Wang & Sun, 2017). The pathogenesis of this disease is not completely understood, which may be involved in genetic variations, gene expression and post-translational modifications.

However, various techniques that developed in recent years have opened up new possibilities for clarifying disease pathways and thereby facilitating early diagnosis and specific therapy (Song & Lin, 2017). There remains a lacuna in fulfilling the completeness or complete cure of some diseases. The thorough pathophysiology lying behind some diseases needs to be investigated thoroughly. If the mechanism of damage of the disease in the human body systems is understood clearly, the treatment modalities can be studied effectively thereby the progress and cure of the disease can be made effective (Johnson, 2020).

Previously our team had conducted numerous original studies and review studies (Menon & Andthenmozhi, 2016). Apart from these our college has also carried out several specific research studies such as the anthropometric studies with forensic implications, in vivo animal studies, in vitro studies, genetic analysis of various diseases, survey studies, bioinformatics analysis of hypertension and related diseases, etc., (Hafeez & Thenmozhi, 2016). Now we are focusing on applying this knowledge to conduct epidemiological survey studies due to the interest in the well-being of the society. Although a lot of studies are being carried out regarding rheumatoid arthritis, almost every study claims that there are less chances of complete remission from it though advancement in therapies came to some help, they come with challenges (Samuel & Andthenmozhi, 2015). Thus this survey aims to assess knowledge, prevalence and risk factors of rheumatoid arthritis among the middle aged and old aged population.

Materials and Methods

Study Setting

The present survey was as an online survey study. Survey studies are believed to have a wider reach, gather large data, quick interpretation and involve a heterogeneous population. This survey has been approved by the Scientific Review Board, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai. The sample size of this survey includes 100 adults in the age group of 15-55 years old. The measures taken to minimize sampling bias are by checking both internal and external validity and minimize error in sampling bias.

Data Collection

A self-structured questionnaire, comprising 15 questions were asked. The data was collected online using survey planet link, which contains outputs such as demographic information, application, advantages, method of representing each output variable includes pie charts and bar diagrams.

Data Analysis

The statistical test used as a student's unpaired test and software used is SPSS and Independent variables include demographics such as age, gender, Dependent variable includes- Awareness, knowledge, perception. For statistical analysis, SPSS version 23.0 was used. Type of analysis used for correction and association was the Chi-square test. All the observed data was analyzed and represented graphically using pie charts and bar charts.

Results and Discussion

The frequency distribution of gender in the survey population depicted 61% were male and 39% were females and rheumatoid arthritis patients are mostly women than men (Figure 1). 61% were male (blue) and 39% were females (red). This was similar to an earlier study by Scott and Kingsley, 2007 (Scott and Kingsley, 2007). Figure 2 represents the age group of respondents in which 55% of them belonged to the age group of 15-25 years old, 16% were from the age group of 26-25 years old, 18% were from the age group of 36-45 years old and 11% were 46-55 years old, this shows that most of the people participated in this survey are young. 55% belonged to 15-25 years old (blue), 16% were 26-35 years (red), 18% were 36-45 years (green), 11% were 46-55 years old (orange)

Figure 3 represents the occupation of the respondents in which 60% were students, for 24% of them it was business, for 3% it was agriculture, 7% were teachers and 6% were doctors, this shows that most of the people participating in this survey were students. Chi-square test showing p=0.288 (p>0.05) indicating statistically not significant.

From the survey data it was found that, for the question, the areas where rheumatoid arthritis can affect, the participants responses are 89% said in joints and 11% said muscles (Figure 4). Pearson chi-square test showing p=0.530 (p>0.05) indicating statistically not significant.

This was in accordance with the previous study (Sekar, 2019). Figure 6 represents whether bone marrow can be completely safe from rheumatoid arthritis, for which 98% said false and 2% said true, this shows the lack of awareness of rheumatoid arthritis among the public. For the question, whether the risk of attaining rheumatoid arthritis increases because of smoking for which 98% said yes and 2% said no (Figure 6). This data was similar to the earlier findings on RA population (Aletaha, 2015).

Figure 5, Chi-square test showing, p=0.495 (p>0.05) indicating statistically not significant.

From the survey, it was observed that, for the question whether rheumatoid arthritis can be genetic or not, the responses for which are 93% said 'yes' and 7% said 'no' (Figure 7) (Subashri & Thenmozhi, 2016). Chi-square test showing p=0.730 (p>0.05) indicating statistically not significant.

Whether exercise helps in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, for this the responses were 91% said 'yes', 7% said 'no' and 2% said 'maybe' (Figure 8). For the classification of types of rheumatoid arthritis for which 80% said it’s of 4 types and 20% said it’s of 3 types (Figure 9) (Thejeswar & Thenmozhi, 2015).

Regarding the common treatment done for rheumatoid arthritis, for which 46% said ice shock treatment and 54% said heat pad treatment (Figure 10). These observations are slightly variable when compared to the earlier studies (Sriram, Thenmozhi, & Yuvaraj, 2015). Regarding the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis shown in areas other than joints for infected persons in percentage for which 8% said 40%, 47% people said 50%, 42% people said 60% and 1% said 70% people show such symptoms (Figure 11) (Keerthana & Thenmozhi, 2016).

As far as rheumatoid arthritis is concerned, several signs and symptoms exist between individuals. Majority of the symptoms are severe joint pain with warm sensations on the affected joints, which is regarded as tender and warm joints in RA (Kannan & Andthenmozhi, 2016). Figure 12 represents the common symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis, for which 89% said tender and warm joints and 11% said fever and cold. These observations were slightly varying from the previous study report (Seppan et al., 2018).

According to the result represented on Figure 1, 61% of the participants were male and 39% of them were female, In a similar survey conducted by Bostworth et al., 89% of the participants were female and 11% were male (Aletaha, 2015). In another survey performed by Smolen et al., almost 3 times of women: men were there as rheumatoid arthritis ratio (Smolen et al., 2015). This shows women are often at a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

According to Figure 12, many people said more than 50% of affected persons show symptoms other than in joints (Pratha & Thenmozhi, 2016). 89% said Tender and warm joints (red) and 11% said fever and cold (blue).

But according to a similar study performed 40% showed symptoms other than in joints and 57% told body fatigue appeared and 4% never showed any symptoms, this shows that the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis depends upon many factors and varies from person to person (Choudhari & Andthenmozhi, 2016).

Figure 11, patients with symptoms other than in joints. Among all, in 50% of RA patients, showed symptoms other than in joints which were 47% (red).

In Figure 12, the common symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis were 89% tender and warm joints and 11% were fever and cold, when compared to a similar study it shows that 76% of the public are not aware of the chronic symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis (Krishna & Babu, 2016).

In Figure 7, the responses for the question about exercise helping in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, 91% of them said yes and 7% said no. The rest said maybe, which agrees with another similar survey which shows most (44%) of the patients are depressed and stressed since exercise is proven to reduce stress, it can be a great factor to treat rheumatoid arthritis (Nandhini, 2018).

Figure 8, Chi-square test showing p=0.771 (p>0.05) indicating statistically not significant.

In Figure 5, according to the responses obtained 89% said joints were mainly affected because of rheumatoid arthritis, in a similar study 37% of rheumatoid arthritis patients reported thyroid disease and showed elevated levels of thyroid hormones (Shiroky, Cohen, Ballachey, & Neville, 1993). In Figure 3, the pie chart represents the age groups of the participants, where the majority of them belonged to the age group of 15-25 years old, whereas in a similar survey on age-standardized point prevalence and annual incidence rates of rheumatoid arthritis, UK had the highest rate of 95%, this shows that early diagnosis and treatment is required to reduce the burden on this ongoing issue (Safiri, 2019).

Conclusion

Rheumatoid arthritis is a major global public health challenge. Earlier diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis allows for earlier treatment and increased chance of remission, especially among females. The quality of health data also needs to be improved for better monitoring of the disease burden. Thus, we conclude that though the people are relatively aware of rheumatoid arthritis, the risk factors and the possible preventive and therapeutic interventions are not much awareness among them. A proper even more knowledge and awareness has to be made among the public at the primary health care centers, direct interventional strategies and by government medical policies.