Abstract
Background"Arthritis" is a common musculoskeletal condition but the knowledge of what type of arthritis people have, may be limited but may have changed over time in response to campaigns, increased awareness and improved health literacy. This paper describes people who did not know what type of arthritis they had, by a range of relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables, and assesses changes over time in the proportion of people who report having arthritis but do not know what type, using representative population surveillance data.MethodsData were collected using the South Australian Monitoring and Surveillance System (SAMSS), a risk factor surveillance system where each month, a representative random sample of South Australians is selected from the Electronic White Pages, with interviews conducted using computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Data were used for the period January 2006 to December 2008 (n = 16465) for respondents aged 18 years and over.ResultsOverall, the proportion of respondents who did not know what type of arthritis they had, among people aged 18 years and over, for 2006 to 2008 was 6.5% (95% CI 6.1-6.9). When considering only those respondents reporting that they had been told by a doctor that they had arthritis, 30.1% did not know what type of arthritis they had. Multivariate analysis indicated that males, those with have a trade, certificate or diploma or secondary level of education, who spoke a language other than English at home, were widowed and earned $20,001 to $60,000, more than $80,000 or did not state their income were more likely to maintain that they did not know what type of arthritis they had.ConclusionsPopulation ageing and an increase in arthritis prevalence in the future will further increase the burden of arthritis. These increases in prevalence are not inevitable, especially if investments are made in public health prevention programs, particularly those addressing cultural and linguistic diversity and differences in socio-economic status and health literacy.
Highlights
Chronic disease is a crucial public health issue [1]
The proportion stating that they did not know what type of arthritis they had, was 6.5%
Those who did not know the type of arthritis were statistically significantly more likely to: be born in a country other than Australia, speak a language other than English, be separated/divorced or widowed, have a gross household income of $40,000 or less per year, be economically inactive, be in the lowest two Index of Relative Social Disadvantage (IRSD) quintiles or have secondary school as their highest level of educational attainment
Summary
Chronic disease is a crucial public health issue [1]. Being able to provide policy and planning experts with quality data to assist them in their decision making is important, in an endeavour to provide appropriate preventive and management policies, programs and interventions. Health literacy is vital to all people, but people with chronic diseases in particular, to ensure reasonable measures are taken for treatment and maintenance of the condition. Having poor or inadequate health literacy can contribute to a variety of outcomes including: poor compliance, uncontrolled chronic disease, difficulties with accessing health care, following instructions from a physician or taking medication properly, and inability to complete forms [2]. All of these activities are compromised when people do not even know exactly what condition they are dealing with
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