Joint pain, stiffness that prevents certain movements, chronic fatigue … Such is the daily lot of patients suffering from rheumatism chronic inflammatory diseases. Common in the elderly, some diseases of this type can however appear in childhood, such as rheumatoid arthritis. From then on, trivial actions of everyday life become difficult because of this rheumatism. Spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis or even lupus erythematosus cause these same difficulties.
To fight against the isolation of patients and in particular young people, the French Association for the fight against rheumatism (AFLAR) has launched a social network dedicated to patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatism. Named “Rhuma’talk”, it was designed by patients themselves and launched in early July. It aims to create a space for discussion, advice and support for patients.
In January 2014, a study conducted by the European League Against Rheumatism assessed the quality of life of young people aged 18 to 35 with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in Europe. She had observed that more than half of the patients complained of the impact of their disease on their professional life. In addition, only 32% of those polled had no difficulty talking about their illness to their relatives and 17% did not tell their family at all.
Already with around thirty registrants, this new platform for exchanges between patients should allow them to help each other to better tackle this disease on a daily basis.
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