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News Releases
New DVD to Help Farmers with Arthritis
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 9, 2004) - Arthritis is an equal-opportunity destroyer, sweeping across socio-economic, gender and racial divides. But for farmers, whose livelihood depends on being in good physical shape, arthritis could mean the difference between a steady income and destitution.
Arthritis and arthritis disability are particularly taxing on people who perform physically demanding work. More than one million people in the United States working in agriculture have one of the 100-plus forms of the disease, making them especially vulnerable to the effects of arthritis. Making matters even worse is the compromised access to health care and higher level of poverty among rural populations. In general, Americans who live in rural areas have worse overall health outcomes than Americans residing in metropolitan areas.
To help mitigate the problem, a team of researchers from the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC) at the University of Missouri-Columbia, have put together an educational DVD, depicting farmers in real-life scenarios such as building, planting crops, working with equipment and performing other physical tasks chores that demonstrate the types of movements performed daily. The DVD is being distributed to all rheumatology fellowship programs in the United States, as well as to physical and occupational therapy schools, state health departments and regional arthritis centers.
“Farmers may not seek treatment as soon as their urban counterparts, and their arthritis may be more advanced,” says Marilyn Sanford Hargrove, Ph.D., professor of physical therapy at MU. “The delay may be because of the time that is needed to travel a long distance to get to a physician. Many farmers are not insured. They may wait, therefore, until they reach the age of 65 and are eligible for Medicare before they seek medical treatment. If they think the aches and pains of arthritis are a part of the normal aging process, they might delay seeking help.”
The DVD, titled “Farming with Arthritis,” will also help physicians and other health-care providers better understand the challenges specific to farming population.
“We think it is useful for physicians to have a general understanding of the types of activities farming involves,” says Dr. Sara E. Walker, professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, University of Missouri. “Just as each patient’s needs are different, each farming operation is different.”
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center
(MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia
Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and is the
only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training
center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC),
MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of
disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and
promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic
conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
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