THURSDAY, Oct. 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In 2019, 16.2 percent of adults with arthritis reported ever attending a self-management class, and 69.3 percent reported ever receiving health care provider physical activity counseling, according to research published in the Oct. 22 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Noting that self-management education and physical activity can reduce pain and improve the health status and quality of life among adults with arthritis, Lindsey M. Duca, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues examined 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to assess self-reported self-management class attendance and health care provider physical activity counseling among adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis.
The researchers found that an age-standardized state median of 16.2 percent of adults with arthritis reported ever attending a self-management class in 2019, and 69.3 percent reported ever receiving counseling to be physically active from a health care provider. There was variation noted in the prevalence rates of both by state and sociodemographic characteristics, with reduced prevalence associated with lower educational attainment, joint pain severity, and urbanicity, and for men versus women.
"Public health professionals and medical groups can help improve patient self-management behaviors and outcomes among patients with arthritis by equipping health care providers with the tools and information they need to counsel adults with arthritis to be active and recommend evidence-based physical activity and self-management programs," the authors write.
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