Epidemiology of carpal tunnel syndrome in women of childbearing age. Findings in a large cohort study.

There are few epidemiological data in the scientific literature about the carpal tunnel syndrome. This paper describes the characteristics of the 154 women referred to hospital for management of this condition among the 17,032 taking part in the Oxford-Family Planning Association contraceptive study. Standardized first referral rates for carpal tunnel syndrome doubled as age increased from 25-29 to 50 or more, tripled as smoking increased from zero to 25 or more cigarettes per day, doubled as total duration of oral contraceptive use increased from zero to ten years or more and doubled as Quetelet's obesity index (weight(g)/height(cm)2) increased from up to 1.99 to 2.6 or more. All these trends were statistically significant. Carpal tunnel syndrome was also found to be positively associated with a history of menstrual disorders, gastrointestinal tract symptoms and various orthopaedic conditions. The findings on cigarette smoking are of particular interest but require confirmation or refutation in another study before firm conclusions can be drawn.