Osteoarthritis and Poverty: Challenges and Opportunities

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent highly disabling joint disease of immense public concern in all parts of the world. While most research in this sphere has examined the nature of osteoarthritis in the context of its common focal joint specific impact, can poverty-as a general disadvantageous stressful social condition of resource limitations- influence osteoarthritis presentation and outcomes? If so, can any outcome improvements in this disease be impacted by factoring in socioeconomic status into osteoarthritis investigations, or through dedicated anti-poverty efforts? This brief examines what we know in this sense and why we should perhaps examine this multidimensional social correlate more routinely and comprehensively. Based on key data sources, relevant articles published in the past 20 years duly reviewed indicate that multiple aspects of osteoarthritis presentation and outcomes can be influenced by the social disadvantages of poverty, all other factors being equal, and therapies will fail to achieve their promise if ignored.