New Delhi, October 13, 2016: Arthritis affects 15% of our population i.e. over 180 million people in India. This prevalence is higher than many well-known diseases such as diabetes, AIDS and cancer. Commonly known as Old Man’s disease, affecting people over 65 yrs, arthritis is a systemic inflammatory disorder that mainly affects the diarthrodial joint. Caused chiefly due to wear and tear of joints over years, an infection, an injury or autoimmunity arthritis has been monikered as an affliction of age.
In recent years due to change in lifestyle and lack of physical activity arthritis is said to be affecting our younger generation more. Various agents have been blamed from sedentary lifestyle to over use of laptops and cell phones. To know what doctors think about it Curofy- India’s largest community of verified doctor’s asked their users if they think incidence of Arthritis is increasing in our younger population.
Out of 1530 doctors who responded 1370 or 89% said that a higher number of our younger population was getting afflicted with Arthritis.
Dr Vibhore Singhal, Senior Consultant Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement, Columbia Asia Hospitals said, “Yes we have been seeing quite a few early onset arthritis, post chikungunya these days a major damage to the joints happen, so much so that we are also considering joint replacement for them. Lack of exercise in the younger population is also one of the major reason. Neck conditions are also increasing because of increase in usage of mobiles.”
Only 10.4% or 160 doctors said that the incidence of arthritis is not increasing in our younger population. According to them there has been increased reporting of cases due to people being more aware now.
Dr SJ Gupta, Senior Consultant, Rheumatology,Apollo Hospital, New Delhi said, “Incidence of arthritis is 1 percent in our country, which is fairly a high number according to our population. Also now the awareness has increased so patients now know where to go and not keep shuttling and trying, they are seeking attention priorly.”
Commenting on what causes arthritis, he said “ Repetitive stress injury is true with any mechanical stress so weather it be thumbs because of texting or shoulders because of keyboards. Osteoarthritis is more so lifestyle related with lack of exercise etc. however inflammatory arthritis is autoimmune.”
The poll results clearly showed that our doctors are now seeing more number of our younger generation turning up with arthritis than before and this is a cause of concern for us as a nation.
Commenting on this Mudit Vijay vergiya, co founder Curofy said, “India is a growing superpower and the young growing generation is our future. In a race to ace academics children today are confined to school and home instead of playing more on playground. Arthritis is a preventable disease that can be managed in a long term and people have to be made aware of that.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswrie)
