Many of you may have heard of the Healthy People initiative, in particular Healthy People 2010. Healthy People 2020 is the new set of national goals and objectives to guide national health promotion and disease prevention efforts for all people through the next decade here in the United States. In addition to the Healthy People 2020 website and a brochure describing Healthy People 2020 goals and topic areas, there are also websites specific to the different topic areas, such as the "Arthritis, Osteoporosis, and Chronic Back Pain" page. Several key points regarding this topic area are:
- Interventions can reduce arthritis pain and improve functionality, but are underused. These include: an increase in physical activity, self-management education, and weight loss among overweight and obese adults.
- Men have osteoporosis too – an estimated 800,000 men age 50 and over in the U.S. have osteoporosis.
- Low back pain is the second greatest cause of lost work time (after the common cold).
Some of the specific objectives of Healthy People 2020 regarding Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Chronic Back Pain include:
- Reducing the mean level of joint pain for adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritits (AOCBC-1)
- Reducing the unemployment rate among adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis (AOCBC-6.1)
- Increasing the proportion of adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis who have had effective, evidence-based arthritis education as an integral part of the management of their condition (AOCBC-8)
- Reduce hip fractures among older adults (AOCBC-11)
- Reduce activity limitation due to chronic back conditions (AOCBC-12)