World Arthritis Day 2021: Theme, Date, History & Significance

World Arthritis Day is a beautiful day to spread awareness on various types of ailments related to rheumatism. People are educated about healthy living choices, prevention and treatment for these diseases.

When is World Arthritis Day 2021?

The Arthritis Foundation organizes World Arthritis Day on October 12th every year to spread awareness on arthritis disease. 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.

World Arthritis Day 2021 – 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 made efforts to spread public messages on musculoskeletal diseases. However, only from the year 2017, the annual celebrations began to be set up with a theme alongside.

Rheumatic diseases were prevalent in large communities before, mainly due to a lack of awareness and correct diagnosis. In this regard, the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) launched massive campaigns against rheumatic diseases, early diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

World Arthritis Day 2021 Theme

• The theme for World Arthritis Day 2021 is undecided yet. The year 2020 and 2019 theme was “Time2Work”.
• 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.
• 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.

What is Arthritis?

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.

Arthritis’s underlying causes 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 recovery from pain becomes more comfortable.

World Arthritis Day 2021 Celebrations

We have to practice ethical and healthy living styles to become stiff and free ourselves 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 about preventing arthritis and healthy living choices, and quitting 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, which is one way 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.
• Health camps organized by doctors and orthopaedics could add spice to the events, as people would double up their trust when the relevant coordinator speaks it.