Arthritis Action Plan
II. Overview
At least 70 million Americans have been found to suffer from arthritis and its related diseases.
People are living longer. In 2000, life expectancy at 65 years was estimated to be an additional 17.9 years.1 As one researcher put it, "... the coming of age is positive evidence... that time is a horizon that rushes toward us...."2 But maybe not as fast as it used to. Whether this "... bounty of a lengthened life course is boon or burden for the individual and for society," this same researcher asks, is difficult to answer with certainty. He concludes, "... maybe some of both."3
Death is not the only event forestalled. Marriage, for example, is occurring later as is the now more common second marriage. These multiple couplings are blending families into new, complex structures with implications for caretakers. Longevity can mean that children caretakers are becoming responsible for their parents at later points in their own lives. In 1900, for example, "... a 50 year old had only a 4% chance of having two parents still alive; by 2000 this chance increased to 27%, alongside an 80% chance of having at least one parent alive."4 Put another way, to quote the journal Generations, "... nowadays, the majority of middle-aged people have more parents than they have children."5
The phenomenon of long life carries challenges for society that are neither new nor unexplored. When the baby boomer generation enters their senior years this development will become more serious. In 1940 the likelihood that a 65-year old would live to age 90 was about 7%. By 2000 the odds have more than tripled to 26%.6 Now, promoting health and preventing disease become more than ideals. They become practical goals to keep society productive and healthy. Since individual good health directly influences the collective health of the population as it ages, any significant expansion in the elderly population is noteworthy. While good fortune and good genes count, good lifestyle behaviors may count more. Proper nutrition, weight control, physical exercise and tobacco avoidance impact not only how long we live but also how well we live. Nowhere is this more compelling than in the management of chronic disease. Healthy lifestyles can prevent their occurrence or substantially reduce their complications.
The consequences of arthritis are of great concern. The intersection of the disease with longer life expectancy in the US has the potential to disable increasingly larger numbers of individuals over longer periods of time. As arthritis prevalence increases, the direct medical costs and indirect costs arising from lost productivity will also increase. This can be controlled. Effective prevention strategies and treatments exist to reduce the incidence of the disease and its related symptoms and disability. Both the inevitability of arthritis, assumed to be an automatic byproduct of aging, as well as the belief that its physical course is irreversible, are myths. Arthritis has become a priority for public health and for public policy leaders throughout the country. The NYS DOH Arthritis Program presents its Arthritis Plan in the spirit of this commitment to new action.
