Arthritis Awareness Week – April 6-12, 2008

Arthritis Australia has offered GPs 29 information sheets on common and rare forms of arthritis and musculoskeletal pain as a special initiative for Arthritis Awareness Week.

“GPs deal with arthritis several times a day in their practices,” says Dr Mona Marabani, president of Arthritis Australia, launching a special initiative for Arthritis Awareness Week.

“Just under four million Australians have arthritis and if you’re over 80, the chances of having arthritis are one in two. Of the $24 billion dollars arthritis costs each year in health care, lost time at work, shortened lives and years spent with disability, over 60% are carried by the people with arthritis themselves. One in 10 people have neck pain for instance at any given time and many people are taking fish oil as capsules in insufficient doses to make a difference to arthritis.

“There’s quite a bit of evidence that if you have arthritis of some kind, just knowing about it and understanding your options can relieve the pain. So we’ve produced 29 information sheets on a variety of musculoskeletal problems and solutions from neck and hand pain to lupus to the facts about omega 3s,” explains Dr Marabani.

“We’ve taken the best evidence from around the world including the Cochrane Collaboration and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and then consulted with consumers themselves so the information is both utterly reliable and tailored to ordinary people’s needs.”