Osteoarthritis is a disease that affects many French people. A white paper containing recommendations to improve their quality of life has just been published.
Ten million French people suffer from osteoarthritis. This disease is due to aging of the joints linked to wear and tear. People who have it complain of joint pain, such as the hip or knee, or difficulty moving their fingers.
Osteoarthritis is also the first cause of disability for people over 40, and the second reason for consultation with the general practitioner. Yet despite its very negative impact on a large part of the French population, there is no national plan to respond to the challenges posed by the disease.
States-General
THE’National Alliance Against Osteoarthritis and theAFLAR have therefore taken hold of the problem by setting up a series of initiatives over the past three years to better support patients. Communication actions about osteoarthritis have been launched, in particular via the website Stop osteoarthritis.
Better understanding the feelings of patients then became the priority. The latter were thus able to express themselves through opinion surveys, but also during general meetings bringing together patients and medical actors, organized in several regions over the past year.
These meetings resulted in the selection of 21 proposals to improve the quality of life and daily life of patients. From there, the two associations decided to define three axes of work to continue, and to bring before the public authorities. They are summarized withina white paper published on Tuesday.
Three areas of work
First line of work: take an interest in patient pain, and set up innovative systems to relieve it. Beyond the treatments that are currently prescribed, professionals believe that original and easy-to-establish solutions can help patients on a daily basis. In particular, they imagine the distribution of a “painkiller kit” which includes advice on physical activity and positions to be performed at home to reduce pain.
Second priority, achieve recognition of this disease, so that more rigorous support measures are finally taken at the national level. The white paper proposes, for example, to raise public awareness of osteoarthritis during campaigns to encourage physical activity. The idea is to put this disease on the same level as cardiovascular pathologies or diabetes.
Finally, the white paper proposes the provision of information for patients. The Stop-Arthrose site is already a very complete source of information for patients, but could already be updated. The creation of a solidarity shop to help patients and finance initiatives for them could be considered.
By proposing a whole series of measures, AFLAR and the National Alliance Against Osteoarthritis hope to attract the attention of the political world, and to raise certain devices facilitating the daily life of patients to the rank of law.
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