SLALA designates October 12th as “Wear Blue Day” in observance of World Arthritis Day.

October is a month of many observances in St Lucia and Arthritis Awareness is one of them. World Arthritis Day (WAD), was established in 1996 and is held annually on October 12th. The purpose of this day is to bring awareness to this disease, highlighting its impact and ways of prevention and management. The theme for this year is, ‘Living with an RMD (rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease) At All Stages of Life’.

Arthritis is a non-communicable, often chronic and sometimes degenerative disease that impacts quality of life, sometimes rendering persons incapable of normal movement and leading to disability. The signs of arthritis include joint pain, swelling, stiffness, redness, warmth and loss of mobility/function. Most people think all arthritis is the same, but there are over 100 types of arthritis known. A large part of the world’s population is affected by this disease and St. Lucia is no different. In the US between 2016-2018 it was estimated that about 24% of the population had been diagnosed with some type of arthritis. That is to say for every 4 persons 1 was diagnosed with arthritis. Arthritis accounts for one of the largest causes of disability worldwide and poses a heavy burden on our society. We know that almost everyone has heard of or experienced arthritis in some form or another. However, the understanding of the different types and how management and complications can vary, may not be well known to most.

The most commonly known types of arthritis are osteoarthritis (about 530 million people worldwide in 2019) and rheumatoid arthritis (about 18 million). However, there are also important causes like lupus, gout, fibromyalgia, sexually transmitted infections, spondyloarthritis and juvenile arthritis among others. The treatment of each varies across the board. While arthritis mostly affects persons older than 55, as well as women, children can also get arthritis; and some causes like Gout, are more common in men. As with most NCDs there are preventable and non-preventable risk factors. For arthritis, the preventable ones include: not smoking, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, little or no alcohol consumption, avoiding joint injuries, safe sex practices.

This month, SLALA will begin arthritis awareness activities with a church service at the St. Benedict Parish on Morne Fortune at 8:30am. Arthritis will be the focus of the SLMDA talk show HealthWise on Wednesday 11th October. The SLALA will also be sharing facts about arthritis and its management on its Facebook and Instagram pages.

On World Arthritis Day, Thursday 12th October, we hope you would join us in raising awareness by wearing something blue, wherever you are. And finally, on Thursday October 19th and 26th, we invite you to Get Moving for Arthritis - Sneaker Thursdays by wearing your sneakers, along with something blue. You can share your photos or videos of you moving with us by using the hashtags #wad, #wearblueforarthritis and #getmoving on our social media pages. Exercise and movement are an integral part of preventing and treating arthritis, so we hope you will join us. This is also part of our own contribution to the Ministry of Health’s Let’s Move St Lucia Campaign. Please follow SLALA on Facebook and Instagram for more details on the month’s activities and also information on arthritis throughout the month.

Help us make arthritis more visible, but less critical by becoming more physical. Don’t forget to wear your blue this Thursday.  Happy World Arthritis Day!