Osteoarthritis (OA) is a growing epidemic in the United States:
- OA is the most common joint disease.
- ~30 million Americans are affected, with numbers expected to grow as a result of aging, obesity and sports injuries.
- Average age of physician-diagnosed knee OA has fallen by 16 years, from 72 in the 1990s to 56 in the 2010s.
- Approximately 35% of U.S. adults are obese, which increases the risk of developing OA.
- Knee injury is common, particularly amongst young athletes, and increases the risk of developing OA by more than fivefold.
- 1 in 2 Americans is expected to develop symptomatic knee OA, the most common form of OA, during their lifetime.
- OA accounts for over $185 billion of annual healthcare expenditures, which does not include loss of productivity costs.
- CDC shows an increasing number of OA diagnoses, which will lead to additional healthcare resource utilization.
- As reported in an Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) white paper (Nov 2016), “subjects in the US cohort with symptomatic radiographic knee OA were 23% more likely to die prematurely than people free from OA, independent of age, sex and race.”
Physician Videos
Andrew I. Spitzer, M.D., Co-Director of the Joint Replacement Program at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedic Center, and Timothy McAlindon, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of the Division of Rheumatology & Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, discuss unmet needs in OA, including patient challenges and how the condition affects daily living.
