World Arthritis Day – 12th October 2020
If you look at lifestyle disorders and health indices of people around the world, you’ll find some disease patterns growing at an alarming rate. Many people today speak of a common illness that troubles them – Arthritis. To spread awareness on this disease, The Arthritis foundation at Atlanta organizes the World Arthritis Day on October 12th every year. It is a widespread movement across the globe and has found many respondents to its program.
The disease is such a bane that people hit back from doing their routine tasks. They begin to depend on their housemates for every simple job they need to do for themselves. Thus, their physical and mental health takes a beating, and people shun themselves out from their social lives.
This article is entirely dedicated to World Arthritis Day 2020, where we discuss various aspects including its history, significance, themes, celebrations and answer essential FAQs.
World Arthritis Day History
The first celebration of World Arthritis can be dated back to the year 1996. It began with the combined efforts of The Arthritis and Rheumatism International Foundation. This healthcare NGO took efforts to spread public messages on musculoskeletal diseases. However, it was only from the year 2017 that the annual celebrations began to be set up with a theme alongside.
Rheumatic diseases were prevalent in large communities before mainly due to lack of awareness and correct diagnosis. In this regard, EULAR or The European League against Rheumatism launched massive campaigns against rheumatic diseases, early diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
Arthritis causes severe stiffness and joint pain. It disables a person from carrying out his normal activities. It is a disease that shows severity as the person starts ageing. The two main critical cringing factors in previous years include poor early diagnosis plus very low accessibility to proper care.
Inflammation of joints and related rheumatic disabilities were taken less seriously leading to higher grades of the disease. With greater awareness, the world has accepted the condition with a better approach, and suitable possible medical treatments have become more accessible to all communities.
Significance of World Arthritis Day 2020
Arthritis has more than one form of disease signs. A person could be suffering from osteoporosis or gout or joint inflammation; it all comes down to one common term called ‘arthritis’. It causes severe pain in joints, cringes body movements, increases stiffness and sometimes shows swelling too. These symptoms could cause one or more complications based on the intensity of underlying factors.
Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid Arthritis is another common form of Arthritis. These are collectively termed as RMDs or rheumatoid and musculoskeletal diseases. Furthermore, RMDs could be inflammatory or non-inflammatory. With advanced technologies in medical science, the world has more excellent knowledge and awareness of these factors. Earlier, there was nobody who told that a pain caused on the leg joint could well be a case of Arthritis.
Suffering alone and ignorance followed by surgeries and more complications. Today, the global healthcare system is better equipped to handle all forms of Arthritis with better solutions and quality medical treatments. The underlying causes of Arthritis could be hereditary; lifestyle-induced poor physical activities, being overweight, age factors and other injuries. At the onset of disease symptoms, care should be taken to consult a doctor immediately within the initial 12 weeks.
When the disease gets treatment in this starting phase of the disease, the long-term effects could be delayed, and recuperation from pain becomes more comfortable. NGOs today are spreading messages through campaigns, and its high time we follow a good and healthy lifestyle, quit smoking and alcohol, take less stress and include more sleep.
World Arthritis Day 2020 Themes
Starting in 2017, the celebrations for World Arthritis Day became more popular and themed with context. Some of the popular themes of past year celebrations are:
- 2017 gave a clear message to the world which said: “Don’t Delay, Connect Today”. The theme spoke in context with early diagnosis and better accessibility to treatment facilities.
- 2018 set the stage for individual participation and called out its theme “It’s in your hands, take action”. It was clear that preventive measures by healthcare organizations wouldn’t do enough without participation from individuals themselves. Every person needs to show interest towards his or her health and start eating healthy, follow a good lifestyle and keep smoking and drinking alcohol at bay.
- 2019 clocked and fast-forwarded the program implementation wheels with its theme “Time2Work”. Launching help centres and more avenues of spreading information to more enormous masses of communities helped achieve targets set for that year.
- 2020 is not going to have a separate theme. The theme set for 2019 is going to continue for the current year as well.
World Arthritis Day 2020 Celebrations
All of us have to practice ethical and healthy living styles to become stiff and keep ourselves free from diseases like Arthritis. To have a beautiful day of celebration, it is also imperative that we have an immune system that keeps us free from diseases. As part of celebrations, these could be some of the norms:
- Active campaigning is one of the modest ways to spread awareness on the topic. World Arthritis Day is a unique way of spreading messages not only about preventing Arthritis but also about healthy living choices and to quit smoking and drinking.
- Unique and customised ribbons in purple and blue colours are characterised to represent these diseases. It’s a unique and attractive way to celebrate awareness on the topic. People are generally drawn to attractive colour schemes, and this is one of the ways to talk about the disease with the masses quickly.
- Educating the masses about Arthritis as a disease is most important. It could be with the help of volunteer activities, marathon walks, sponsored events or public talks. But the more it is talked about; the higher is the outreach.
- Health camps organized by doctors and orthopaedics could add spice to the events as they are health professionals and people would double up their trust when the relevant coordinator speaks it.
Conclusion
Approximately 350 million people and more have Arthritis according to world health statistics. Take to social media to spread awareness on the topic. Discussions through webinars and live talks could be an advantageous way to cover more knowledge on the subject.
Educational institutions could also be of immense use in this regard. Children could be educated to spread messages to their immediate families, friends and neighbours/relatives. This way, the words get more significant propaganda and hence would reach out to more prominent communities.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is World Arthritis Day?
World Arthritis Day is a beautiful day to spread awareness on various types of ailments related to rheumatism. It also brings closer to people, the many effects of musculoskeletal disorders. People are educated about healthy living choices, prevention and treatment for these diseases.
2. How do we celebrate World Arthritis Day?
Celebrations concerning World Arthritis Day is conducted through active campaigning, volunteering, social media talks and discussions, health camps and spreading the word through press conferences.
3. When is World Arthritis Day?
October 12th every year is celebrated as World Arthritis Day.
4. What colour represents Arthritis?
The colours Purple and Blue are used to represent the disease, and the same colours are used to spread awareness on World Arthritis Day. They are attractive ways to spread messages amongst the masses.
5. What is World Arthritis Day 2020 Theme?
“Time2Work” is the World Arthritis Day 2020 Theme
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