Over 15% of Australians affected by arthritis
More than 3.1 million Australians were estimated to be affected by arthritis in 2007–08, according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The report, A snapshot of arthritis in Australia 2010, found that the prevalence of arthritis increased from 13.6% in 2001 to 15.2% in 2007–08.
Researcher Dr Naila Rahman said that this increase can be largely attributed to Australia’s ageing population.
The rate of arthritis increases with age, especially after the age of 45, and is highest among those aged over 75 years.
An older population means a higher prevalence of the disease.
Among these older groups, women make up a substantially higher proportion of sufferers.
Exercise can help ease arthritis pain but…
Evidence that exercise is good for people with arthritis of the hip hasn’t been so clear and in fact one large trial suggests that exercise when you’ve got arthritis of the hip might make the pain worse, according to an ABC Health Report broadcast.
That led to researchers bringing together the evidence from trials of aerobic exercise and strengthening exercises in people with arthritis of the hip or knee arthritis as well as hip arthritis.
The result was that pain relief could result from exercises, but they had to be in programs supervised by people who knew what they were doing – like physiotherapists – and it had to be at least one session a week for four weeks.
The level of pain relief was about the same as taking paracetamol or ibuprofen- not large but enough to be noticeable.
