The Prevalence of Kashin-Beck Disease in China: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a serious degenerative chronic joint disease. However, there are few quantitative syntheses of KBD prevalence studies. In this study, an initial systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to study the prevalence of KBD in China. Five databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Data, and the China Science-Technology Journal Database (VIP)) were searched by performing an overall search method to identify studies of KBD prevalence in China that were published from the inception of the database to May 30, 2022. The risk of bias was assessed with the standardized risk of bias tool. Heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 statistic. A random-effect meta-analysis was performed to study the prevalence of KBD through an analysis of published studies. A total of 34 studies involving 24,820 patients with KBD were included in this meta-analysis. These studies were geographically divided into 3 endemic areas. The pooled overall prevalence rate for KBD was 0.06% (95% CI, 0.04–0.08%). The pooled prevalence estimates were 0.05% (95% CI, 0.01–0.12%) for northeast endemic areas, 0.06% (95% CI, 0.03–0.09%) for northwest endemic areas, and 0.04% (95% CI, 0–0.14%) for southwest endemic areas. There was a negative correlation between KBD prevalence and the publication year. No potential risk of publication bias was found by Begg’s test and Egger’s test. The publication year and quality score were significantly associated with the detected heterogeneity. Our study indicates that the occurrence and development of KBD have been effectively controlled in recent decades. More effective strategies are needed to prevent and treat KBD.