National health survey reveals that Canadians with arthritis/rheumatism have much higher health service utilization.

Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey 2000-01 reveals that nearly 4 million Canadians report being diagnosed with arthritis/rheumatism. Canadians with arthritis have much higher health service utilization that those without. In fact, nearly half of Canadians with arthritis/rheumatism report visiting a doctor five or more times during the past year and arthritis/rheumatism patients are twice as likely as those without these conditions to have had least one overnight stay in a hospital or nursing home during the past year.

Ensuring access to effective new treatments to manage arthritis can help arthritis patients avoid or delay disability and live independently longer. Health Canada’s report: Economic Burden of Illness in Canada, 1998 estimates the direct and indirect costs of arthritis to be over $ 4 billion in 1998 with nearly $3.4 billion of these costs due to lost productivity through long-term disability. As Canada’s population ages, the prevalence of arthritis will increase as will disability associated with arthritis.