The true impact of arthritis

You'll know all too well the impact arthritis has on your own life. Perhaps you also think about how your arthritis affects your loved ones or your employer, but the impact doesn’t stop there. With 10 million people in the UK living with arthritis, each with friends and family, many with work colleagues and employers and all supported by a team of healthcare professionals, the ripple effect of arthritis touches every person in our society, either directly or indirectly.To support our campaign, we've gathered evidence to reveal the extent of the hidden impact of arthritis on our society, published in a new report,Arthritis: The Nation’s Joint Problem (PDF, 2794.2 MB). We wanted to share some of the headline findings with you:Impact on the economyEvery year, more than 25 million working days are lost to osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis– making arthritis one of the UK’s biggest causes of sick leave.Arthritis also means we're losing valuable talent from our workforce. A quarter (25%) of people with the condition leave work or retire earlier than they would otherwise. Just 11% say they're currently accessing help that's helping them to stay in work for longer.Impact on the health serviceThe estimated NHS spend on care for people with arthritis stands at more than£10 billion– 8.25% of the 2017 health service budget. Here are just a few examples of the impact of arthritis on the NHS:One in five people consult their GP about a...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news