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Stories for Reprint
Minorities Suffer More Limitations from Arthritis, Study Finds
Arthritis has been called an equal-opportunity destroyer, sweeping across racial, ethnic and economic divides. But while arthritis strikes indiscriminately, it affects racial and ethnic minorities differently. Despite similar prevalence of arthritis among minorities and Whites, minorities suffer more activity and work limitations from the disease, according to a new report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For example, arthritis strikes similar number of African Americans and Whites, but African Americans report more joint pain and discomfort, suffer more severe limitations and worse overall outcomes compared to White people with arthritis. Hispanic people have lower prevalence of arthritis compared to Whites, but report more activity and work limitations.According to CDC experts, the reasons for these disparities are many and complex. They may reflect worse access to health care and services among minorities, as well as language barriers.
In addition, activity limitations among African Americans may be a related to higher prevalence of obesity. Being overweight or obese can worsen symptoms of arthritis and limit physical activity.
The higher proportion of work limitations among minorities may also reflect the difference in the type of work performed by minorities. For example, minorities are more likely to be employed in physically demanding jobs.
The study is descriptive. It makes no attempt to draw conclusions about cause and effect.
To infer any cause-effect relationships, the study must take into consideration factors such as socio-economic status, environment, body-mass index and other, says Kristofer Hagglund, Ph.D., associate dean for health policy and professor of health psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The study didn't factor in socio-economic status, body-mass index and concurrent diseases that might worsen arthritis outcomes. Those are two factors that might explain the difference in limitations. Findings in the study were based on a 2002 national survey.
Arthritis occurs in 21 percent of the U.S. population, or about one in five people. Some 70 million people have arthritis or an arthritis-related condition. One-third of people with arthritis reported activity limitations. About two-thirds of those who have an arthritis-related limitation are people of working age, 18 to 64. The number of people with arthritis-related limitations will increase over the next 25 years as the population ages.
The CDC recommends tailoring educational and treatment programs to reflect the needs pf specific populations. For example, the CDC has developed Arthritis Self Help Course, a self-management education program that is also available in Spanish.
Arthritis is a general term for more than 100 conditions, the most common forms of which are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthritis disability siphons off more than $21 billion a year from the U.S. economy in direct health-care costs related to arthritis disability.For a more detailed description of CDC's findings, go to www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5007a3.htm
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