Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome that is characterised by generalised musculoskeletal pain, often associated with sleep disorders, fatigue, somatic and cognitive symptoms.

Marques AP et al. conducted a literature review on the prevalence of fibromyalgia. For this study, a bibliographical survey from 2005 to 2014 in the MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, LILACS and SciELO databases was done, and 3274 records were identified. According to the inclusion criteria, five researchers picked up studies that obtained the prevalence of fibromyalgia. While fibromyalgia studies in associated diseases were excluded from the review. Also, based on the title and abstract screening, around 2073 irrelevant articles were excluded.

About 210 articles with full texts were assessed for eligibility and finally included 39 studies, described in 41 articles. The studies were divided into 4 categories:

1. Prevalence of fibromyalgia in the general population

2. Prevalence of fibromyalgia in women;

3. Prevalence of fibromyalgia in rural and urban areas;

4. Prevalence of fibromyalgia in special populations.

The literature revealed that the prevalence of fibromyalgia in the general population between found to be 0.2 and 6.6%. The 2.4 and 6.8% women population had fibromyalgia. In urban areas it was found to be more prevalent, i.e. between 0.7 and 11.4%. It was less prevalent in rural areas ranging between 0.1 and 5.2%, and in special populations it was 0.6 and 15%.

Overall, it was estimated that there is a significant increase in fibromyalgia prevalence throughout the world. The new, 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria have not been widely used yet. The COPCORD (Community-oriented program for control of Rheumatic Diseases) methodology has increased the quality of studies on the prevalence of rheumatic diseases in general.