Musculoskeletal diseases, with circumstances such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia, are among the prominent causes of pain and disability worldwide, with an estimated global prevalence of 810 million in 2010. In 2005, it was estimated that nearly 27 million US adults have clinical osteoarthritis (OA), a number which is likely to increase significantly in the next 20 years as the amount of adults over 65 years of age rises. Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions signify the most common cause of disability in the US. Most of these rheumatic conditions do not have effective disease changing treatments; furthermore, regularly used pharmacological treatments are expensive and are associated with significant adverse events. These chronic, debilitating conditions can also alter psychological well-being in affected individuals. Thus, rheumatic conditions pose a major public health concern.
Scholarly peer review is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field, before a paper describing this work is published in a journal. The work may be accepted, considered acceptable with revisions, or rejected. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given (narrowly defined) field, who are qualified and able to perform reasonably impartial review.
Last date updated on April, 2024
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