Even Healthy Adults May Be Likely to Experience Muscle Stiffness

A study assessed the prevalence of muscle stiffness among patients without rheumatological diseases. According to the results, healthy patients are also at risk for muscle stiffness, which becomes more prevalent with age; it also may begin affecting other domains of life in older age.

“Musculoskeletal stiffness is a common feature in rheumatologic inflammatory diseases but little is known about background joint stiffness in the healthy population. The aim of this survey was to determine the variation in musculoskeletal stiffness with age in a cohort of healthy adults using a patient reported outcome instrument designed to assess stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis,” the researchers explained.

They recruited healthy patients aged 18 years or older from two sites, excluding patients diagnosed with a rheumatological disease; patients were asked to fill out a 21-item questionnaire assessing how severe their musculoskeletal stiffness was, as well as the physical and psychosocial impacts it caused and to determine an overall stiffness score; scores, expressed as percentages, were stratified by age group.

Final analysis included 282 patients (mean [range] age, 42 [18–85] years). In each age group, more than half of patients reported stiffness, but the median overall stiffness score was low (5.4%; IQR, 0 to 12.6). Patients aged ≥60 years had significantly higher scores, with a median 10% (IRQ, 2.6 to 21.9); this was the only age group in which most patients said musculoskeletal stiffness had a physical or psychosocial effect. Outcomes did not largely differ between male and female patients.

The study was published in Musculoskeletal Care.

“The prevalence of musculoskeletal stiffness in healthy subjects of all ages is not negligible, and the high frequency of stiffness and greater severity in the upper age cohort suggest that the background joint stiffness amongst older subjects should be considered when interpreting stiffness in rheumatologic patients,” the researchers wrote in their conclusion.