Early diagnosis vital as figures highlight people with rheumatoid arthritis take six times more sickness leave than average

The life-changing and debilitating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis mean that people affected need over six times more sickness leave than the national average.
About 75% of people with rheumatoid arthritis are of working age – their absence is thought to cost the UK economy £1.8 billion a year.
The Simple Tasks Campaign marks the start of Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Week, which runs from 16th – 22nd June. The aim is to highlight the significant effects of rheumatoid arthritis on working people’s lives. Records show that:

• People with rheumatoid arthritis take an average of 40 days off a year due to illness.
• One-in-seven gives up work within a year of diagnosis.
• 20,000 new cases of rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed each year.

Treatment within the first 12 weeks of the disease can prevent damage to joints and other organs, improve long-term function and increase the chances of achieving remission.
Healthcare professionals must therefore be aware of the importance of timely referrals and access to rheumatologists. And it is vital that people with potential symptoms visit their GP as soon as possible. These symptoms, according to NHS Choices, are:
Pain
This is usually a throbbing and aching sort of pain. Often worse in the mornings and after you have been sitting still for a while. Pain is often felt while you are resting, not after activity.
Stiffness
Joints affected by rheumatoid arthritis can feel stiff, especially in the morning. Morning stiffness associated with a kind of arthritis called osteoarthritis usually wears off within 30 minutes of getting up. However, rheumatoid arthritis morning stiffness usually lasts longer than half an hour.
Warmth and redness
The lining of the affected joint becomes inflamed, causing the joints to swell, and become hot, tender to touch and painful.
Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause inflammation around the joints, such as rheumatoid nodules, and in other parts of your body. The condition can also cause inflammation of your tear glands, salivary glands, the lining of your heart and lungs, and your blood vessels.
“The Simple Tasks campaign is to emphasise that these diseases are significant, that they do lead to major effects on real people’s lives and they are common and important,” says Prof Simon Bowman, President of the British Society for Rheumatology. “I hope that by highlighting rheumatoid arthritis this week people will begin to understand how this disease can have significant effects on young people in the prime of their lives.”
Visit www.simpletasks.org.uk for more information.