According to a government survey released yesterday, more than half of Kentucky workers with arthritis say the chronic condition has limited their ability to work

About one-third of U.S. adults with arthritis say it has affected their ability to work, but in Kentucky that percentage of sufferers is 51.3 percent, highest among the states.

The survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that 33 percent of U.S. workers with arthritis had limitations on the job in 2003, the latest year for which data was available.

While Kentucky had the highest percentage, Nevada had the lowest, with about one-fourth of its adults saying their work was limited.

Arthritis comprises more than 100 different conditions, affecting an estimated 46 million Americans. The most common forms are osteoarthritis -- affecting mostly older people -- gout and rheumatoid arthritis. Symptoms generally include pain, aches, stiffness and swelling in or around the joints.

Overall, nearly 7 percent of all working adults in the survey experienced arthritis-related workplace limitations. Kentucky had the highest percentage of workers, 15 percent, with such limitations, followed by about 3 percent of workers in Hawaii, the CDC study said.