The prevalence of severe joint pain among adults with diagnosed arthritis continues to increase, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in the Oct. 7 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In 2014, more than one-fourth of adults with arthritis had severe joint pain. That is about 14.6 million Americans with severe joint pain, a significant increase from 2002 when there were an estimated 10.5 million adults with severe joint pain, according to Kamil E. Barbour, PhD, and his associates from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (MMWR. 2016 Oct 7;65[39]:1052-6).
Severe joint pain was also more prevalent among patients with overall fair or poor health who were obese or had heart disease, diabetes, or serious psychological distress, the investigators reported.
The investigators defined people with arthritis as those who had “been told by a doctor or other health professional” that they have some form of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus, or fibromyalgia. Severe joint pain was defined as a response of 7 or higher on a scale of 0-10 for rating joint pain on average over the past 30 days.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released its National Pain Strategy, the nation’s first broad, federal effort aimed at developing strategies to reduce the burden of pain among Americans. The initiatives major objectives are to take steps to reduce barriers to pain care, and to increase patient knowledge of treatment options and risks, Dr. Barbour and his associates wrote.
“Health care providers and public health practitioners can begin to implement the recommendations [from the National Pain Strategy] and improve pain care among adults with arthritis and [severe joint pain] by prioritizing self-management education and appropriate physical activity interventions as effective nonpharmacologic ways to reduce pain and improve health outcomes,” the researchers added.
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