Low prevalences of chronic widespread pain and shoulder disorders among the Pima Indians.

Objective: To establish the prevalence of shoulder disease and chronic widespread pain in Pima Indians.
Methods: Cross sectional analyses of data from 4230 subjects for shoulder disease and 105 subjects for chronic widespread pain participating in population surveys
Results: The prevalence of shoulder disease was 4.4% (95% CI, 3.8-5.1), age-sex adjusted to the 1980 US census population. This is lower than in a study of Caucasians [prevalence ratio (PR) = 0.29, 95% CI, 0.20-0.42 for men and PR = 0.55, 95% CI, 0.41-0.73 for women]. Shoulder disease was associated with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (PR = 1.67, 95% CI, 1.19-2.36). No chronic widespread pain was identified (95% CI, 0-3.5%).
Conclusion: Prevalence of these pain syndromes in Pima Indians is lower than in predominantly Caucasian populations. These findings suggest that these populations have different pain perception or different patterns of risk factors for these disorders.