More than 40 million Bangladeshis live with joint pain, about 8.3 million with arthritis

Today, 12 October, is World Arthritis Day. According to Desh Rupantor, research suggests more than 40 million people in Bangladesh suffer pain in various joints, about 8.3 million of them from two forms of arthritis. Fifty-five-year-old Abdul Kader of Jurain in Dhaka needs help to climb to his fifth-floor flat in a building without a lift because of knee pain, and he is far from alone.

The estimate comes from a study of Bangladeshi adults published in BMC Rheumatology in 2020. It found musculoskeletal problems in 30.4% of participants: lower back pain in 18.6%, knee osteoarthritis in 7.3% (about one in 14) and rheumatoid arthritis in 1.6% (about one in 63). Among those affected, 24.8% had reduced ability to do daily tasks and 24.4% reported losing work in the previous 12 months. There is no precise current figure.

The global burden is larger still. The World Health Organization estimates that about 1.71 billion people had a musculoskeletal condition in 2019, and the Global Burden of Disease study for 2021 counted about 606.5 million people with osteoarthritis that year.

Age, excess weight, old joint injuries, inherited tendency and physical inactivity raise the risk. Professor Md Abul Kenan of the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (the Pongu hospital) said arthritis in Bangladesh stems mainly from age-related wear and from genetic or autoimmune rheumatism, and can also follow infection. It cannot be cured, he said, but with regular medicine and care from the start it can be kept under control and people can lead normal lives.

When age-related osteoarthritis makes a knee hard to bend or use, a knee replacement may be needed, Professor Kenan said, and badly bent fingers that stop working may need surgery. Desh Rupantor notes that diagnosis, specialist treatment and rehabilitation remain major gaps. This year's theme for the day is "Achieve Your Dreams".

Photo: X-ray of osteoarthritis of the knee. Photo: James Heilman, MD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Source: Desh Rupantor