Oooooh! My aching back!
Everybody, at some point, had to memorize the names and locations of bones and learn about joints for science class. And everybody probably can recall moms advice about drinking milk for healthy bones. But how often do you really think about the structures that help to give the human body form and enable it to perform any task? Unless youve had a debilitating injury or suffer from a chronic musculoskeletal condition, the answer is probably not too often. A worldwide initiative hopes to change that.
Professional medical associations, patient advocacy groups, governments, and even the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Pope believe that musculoskeletal health is so important that they have declared 2000-2010, "The Bone and Joint Decade."
Even The University of Iowa is jumping aboard the bone-promoting bandwagon. Stuart L. Weinstein, professor of orthopaedic surgery, serves as chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Task Force on the Bone and Joint Decade. Weinstein hopes the global campaign leads to improvements in the quality of life for people with musculoskeletal conditions and helps to advance understanding and treatment of these conditions through research, prevention, and education.
"The movement is just starting now, but we hope that over the next decade we can help to increase the awareness of musculoskeletal health everywhere," Weinstein says.
Musculoskeletal conditions are a silent epidemic. Chronic conditions such as osteoporosis and arthritis and less severe problems such as sprains, strains, and back pains affect millions of people annually. In the United States alone, musculoskeletal conditions rank first among diseases according to measures of disability and on the basis of visits to physicians offices. They are the number one category of reported impairments, according the 1995 National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Nobody really hears about musculoskeletal conditions or their impact on individuals, families and society, Weinstein says.
"Musculoskeletal problems dont get their due because they dont kill you," he explains.
Although the conditions usually are not life threatening, they do have quite an impact.
Despite these figures, only about $92 million is devoted to orthopaedic research annually, Weinstein says. Of that total, only $16 million goes for clinical research. The UI Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, which placed eighth in the 1999 U.S. News & World Report ranking of orthopaedic surgery programs around the country, focuses its research on clubfoot; hip dislocation; and hand, hip, and knee reconstruction, to name a few. Weinstein, known for his work involving scoliosis, recently received the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Zimmer Award for Distinguished Achievement in Orthopaedic Research.
Individuals involved in the Bone and Joint Decade initiative want to raise the awareness of the increasing societal impact of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders, empower patients to participate in decisions about their care, increase funding for prevention activities and research, and promote cost-effective prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders.
The issue of bone and joint health will only become increasingly important as more baby boomers reach the age when musculoskeletal conditions are most prevalent, Weinstein says. Bone and joint disorders account for more than half of all chronic conditions in people over 50 in developed countries and are the most common cause of severe, long-term pain and disability.