Prevalence, risk factors and associations of primary Raynaud's phenomenon: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Objective: To systematically review the literature with regard to the prevalence, incidence, risk factors and associations of primary Raynaud's phenomenon (PRP).

Method: A systematic review of the literature of observational studies for PRP was undertaken using five electronic databases. Any studies reporting prevalence, incidence and risk factors of PRP were collected. Relative risk or OR and 95% CI were extracted or calculated to present the association between risk factors and PRP. Random effects model was used to pool the results.

Results: 33 articles assessing a total of 33,733 participants were included in this analysis (2 cohort, 17 cross-sectional and 14 case-control studies). The pooled prevalence of PRP was 4.85% (95% CI 2.08% to 8.71%) in the general population. The pooled annual incidence of PRP was 0.25% (95% CI 0.19% to 0.32%). Risk factors and associations for PRP included female gender (OR=1.65, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.91), family history (OR=16.6, 95% CI 7.44 to 36.8), smoking (OR=1.27, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.53), manual occupation (OR=2.66 95% CI 1.73 to 4.08), migraine (OR=4.02, 95% CI 2.62 to 6.17), cardiovascular disease (OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.34) and marital status (married, OR=0.60, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.83). The definition of PRP varied considerably between studies.

Conclusions: This is the first systematic review of the prevalence, incidence, risk factors and associations of PRP. Further study using uniform strict criteria for the condition is required to confirm these findings, particularly the possible association with cardiovascular disease.