AIM: The study was to screen the possible risk factors of adverse drug reaction (ADR) induced by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in Shanghai patients with arthropathy. METHODS: The subjects were randomly selected from a database of outpatients with arthropathy from 9 main hospitals in Shanghai. A door to door retrospective epidemiological survey was used to collect demographic information about the patients, both individual and familial. This included data on their medical histories, lifestyle and dietary habits, history of smoking and alcohol consumption, history of drug therapy, quality of life (QOL) prior to NSAIDs intake, history of NSAIDs therapy and its ADR events, etc. Descriptive statistical methods and univariate analysis were also used to identify possible risk factors for ADRs induced by NSAIDs. RESULTS: Of the 1002 patients surveyed, the average length of NSAIDs intake was 2 years. ADR incidence from different NSAIDs was high, in a range from 46.7 %-66.2 %.In general, the candidate risk factors for ADRs were different for each NSAID. Each of the candidate risk factors were defined and studied in order to evaluate its role in the determination of ADRs from NSAIDs. "Family history of ADRs caused by NSAIDs" was found to be a significant risk factor for the four commonly used NSAIDs:meloxicam, diclofenac, nimesulide, and nabumetone. CONCLUSION: A retrospective epidemiological survey was useful in detecting the risk factors for ADRs caused by NSAIDs. The study found that different NSAIDs might have different risk factors and that there is no single risk factor universally applicable to all NSAIDs.