Arthritis Care welcomes Change4Life initiative

The Department of Health today unveiled a new initiative to promote healthy living, based around the simple notion: "eat well, move more and live longer".

As part of the department's efforts to tackle the growing problem of obesity, which can increase the risk of osteoarthritis, Change4Life is setting out to highlight some of the steps people can take to live healthier lives.

Responding to the announcement, Arthritis Care sent the following letter to Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Health:

"I was very pleased to hear about the recently announced Change4Life coalition. Supporting people to live healthier lives is as important as it is urgent, not only in helping to reduce levels of obesity but also to ensure that people are able to keep active and improve their wellbeing.

Musculoskeletal health is a central element to the creed “eat well, move more and live longer”. A fact that is often forgotten in discussions around obesity is the damaging effect that additional body weight can have on a person’s joints. For example, for every pound of bodyweight lost by people with osteoarthritis of the knee, there is a 4 pound reduction in knee stress.

If people do not take account of their joints as part of healthy living, whether they are overweight or not, they could be at risk of long-term disability and chronic pain. People must be supported to reduce the risk of this happening in the first place but also supported to manage their condition if, like nine million other people in the UK, they develop one of the 200 types of arthritis.

Although arthritis can affect people of any age, a large proportion of older people are living with the condition. One of the key elements of dealing with the challenges of an ageing population is to minimise as much as possible the affects of arthritis when we get older. The risks of developing osteoarthritis, the most common form of the condition, can be ameliorated when people are much younger, in part by maintaining a healthy weight and taking appropriate exercise. This is why we particularly welcome this initiative.

There must be, however, an equal emphasis on ensuring people with arthritis are able to get a timely diagnosis plus a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care pathway together with support to self-manage. This will help reduce the impact of their condition and enable them to keep active. Without this commitment, they may be eating well, but their opportunity to “move more” is substantially reduced.

We are very happy to lend out support to the Change4Life initiative and would welcome any further discussion on how we can help to move this forward.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Haynes

Director of Public Affairs"

You can find more information on Change4Life by clicking here.