Nearly one billion people could live with osteoarthritis by 2050, international research team warns
An international team of researchers including a Keele professor has warned that almost one billion people are projected to be living with osteoarthritis by 2050, up from about 600 million in 2023.
The research team, including Keele’s Professor Krysia Dziedzic and led by Curtin University in Australia, has called for stronger health policy action to address the growing global disability burden caused by osteoarthritis.
To address this problem, the team has published a new health policy roadmap in The Lancet outlining three priority areas that national policymakers should focus on to improve osteoarthritis care, saying that the condition is currently under-recognised in health policies globally, inadequately integrated into healthcare delivery for chronic diseases, and inconsistently and often inappropriately treated and prevented.
The roadmap sets out three priorities:
1) recognise and respond to osteoarthritis through national data on its burden and cost and by writing musculoskeletal health into national policy;
2) scale up high-quality, affordable, person-centred care, including by integrating osteoarthritis into primary and chronic disease care and changing how the condition is talked about; and
3) slow its growth, by targeting excess body weight and joint injury, including workplace and sport-related injuries.
Professor Krysia Dziedzic, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Impact) and Director of Keele’s Impact Accelerator Unit, said: “This landmark paper is a call to action with a roadmap to improve the health and wellbeing of populations living with or at risk of osteoarthritis. It highlights a life course approach, health equity and affordable and sustainable solutions.
“The roadmap proposes a united advocacy effort to co-create global health performance targets beyond mortality focused on improving function, participation, and quality of life for osteoarthritis. It aligns closely with the health-related sustainable development goal.”
The paper also promotes the Keele-led Change Osteoarthritis Narrative Initiative (COAN), an international network which aims to transform how osteoarthritis is understood and discussed.
Lead author Professor Andrew Briggs from Curtin University’s School of Allied Health said that health systems internationally are not primed to prevent and manage the rising burden of osteoarthritis, particularly in low- and middle-income settings.
“Osteoarthritis faces an image problem – it’s perceived and dismissed in communities as an unavoidable part of ageing with limited management options, it is not integrated into service models for chronic diseases, and remains largely invisible in national health policies,” Professor Briggs said.
“The scale of the burden of osteoarthritis demands a health policy response that recognises and measures the burden, integrates osteoarthritis care with other conditions, and targets prevention through excess body weight and joint injury control measures.
“Community beliefs around osteoarthritis also need to shift from a narrative that it’s an older person’s condition and nothing can be done, to a narrative that empowers people to manage their symptoms and maintain their valued life activities.”
