Prevalence of Knee Osteoarthritis in the United Arab Emirates: A Scoping Review

Background: Across the globe, osteoarthritis (OA) poses a significant burden on healthcare resources. This has led to renewed interest in accurately identifying cases in each area to implement effective management and prevention strategies. Objectives: To synthesize the available literature on the prevalence of osteoarthritis in the United Arab Emirates through a scoping review. Methods: An organized and systematic search of electronic databases (Ebscohost-Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Springer, and Cochrane) was conducted to locate literature on the prevalence of knee OA across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Studies contributing to the evidence were reviewed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. Results: Of the 25,009 studies located through search strings, only three studies reported the prevalence of OA in the UAE, with rates ranging from 1.4% to 47.1%. Age and body mass index were associated with OA. Conclusions: The literature reports a wide prevalence of knee OA in the UAE, with variations due to geographical location, sample recruitment, and case definition.