Eight years after the first edition, this revision reflects the extraordinary growing importance of epidemiology of the rheumatic diseases. The present volume illustrates the complexity of the discipline and its many links with other specialties, particularly with genetics. It makes it very clear that the epidemiology of rheumatic diseases deserves more than a sentence or a section at the beginning of each chapter in textbooks.

This second edition has been largely rewritten and augmented by new contributions. It expands the scope to new aspects of rheumatology, including syndromes and the particular burden of overall musculoskeletal diseases, which is of major importance at the beginning of the Bone and Joint Decade (BJD). …