Musculoskeletal conditions What's new from Cochrane and how might this affect your practice?

Many general practitioners would suspect from their every day practice that musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis are common general practice clinical problems. This has been confirmed by research ‚Äö- an estimated 16.7/100 GP-patient encounters are for a musculoskeletal condition.1 The costs to the community of these conditions are high, both economically and because they are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.2,3 Due to the high impact of musculoskeletal disorders, the World Health Organisation designated 2001‚Äö-2010 as the 'bone and joint decade' and, since 2002, arthritis and related conditions have been an Australian National Health Priority Area.4