ARTHRITIS: NEW HOPE TO END PAIN
Experts step up battle to beat agonising condition that blights millions of lives
MILLIONS of Britons who suffer from arthritis in silence were offered fresh hope last night.
Doctors battling to find ways of stopping or easing the pain caused by the disease launched a nationwide campaign to highlight the true impact on patients.
It came as research shows arthritis costs the UK economy £2.6billion a year.
More than 10 million people in Britain suffer from the disease, which causes swelling of the joints. Yet while it is the leading cause of pain in the UK, campaigners say it remains largely “invisible”. Dr Liam O’Toole, chief executive of Arthritis Research UK, said: “We have this sort of culture of suffer in silence, grin and bear it, it’s what
my granny used to suffer from. Actually it affects all of us directly and indirectly. We all lose out from it and we want to make sure people don’t suffer in silence.”
Launching the campaign, Dr O’Toole added: “Today we have taken an important step in changing the way the nation sees this major public health issue.”
New research shows 25 million working days are lost annually in the UK due to the two most common forms, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
The figure is set to rise to 25.9 million lost days at a cost of £3.4billion to the economy by 2030, according to research by the York Health Economics Consortium at the University of York.
By 2050 the figures will increase to 27.2 million working days, costing the economy £4.7billion a year.
The NHS and wider healthcare system will spend £10.2billion treating the conditions this year and a total of £118.6billion in the next decade.
Consortium director Matthew Taylor said: “Our research highlights just how significant that impact is and the fact that it’s set to increase. It’s imperative that we all understand arthritis better, so that we can take the necessary steps to help people living with it.”
A separate survey showed that around three in four people with all types of arthritis say their family and social lives are compromised. Just over half of those quizzed feel they are a nuisance to their families, while around a third of sufferers report a negative effect on physical intimacy with their partners.
While 88 per cent of sufferers describe it as a debilitating and life-restricting condition, the report reveals the condition is largely hidden from public view.
The survey found 86 per cent of people with the condition try hard not to let arthritis define them or their personality.
And even though it impacts people of all ages, 89 per cent of people living with it believe the condition is viewed by society as “an old person’s disease”.
More than £100million is being spent this year to develop breakthrough treatments and find a cure. But campaigners insist more resources need to be ploughed into the issue. Dr O’Toole said: “There is a complete mismatch between the enormous impact arthritis has on individuals, their families and society and the attention, priority and resources society currently gives to it.”
He added: “One of the root causes of this is the condition’s invisibility. Change will only come if we can win acknowledgement that there is a problem in which we all have a stake.”
Anne Kearl, 55, from Hampshire has osteoarthritis. She said pain is “always there”, adding: “When friends and colleagues can’t physically see anything wrong with you, they assume you’re OK and often I let people think that rather than be honest about my arthritis.”