National Arthritis Week

Martyn Day Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Westminster Hall

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I start by thanking the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) for leading today’s interesting and timely debate. It is surprising that it is the first such debate for five years.

We have heard from many speakers how arthritis affects people, including young people and working-age people, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) for his excellent example of a person in work and the real troubles that they face. We have heard how it is a fluctuating condition with symptoms that can change on a daily basis, as well as many personal cases and constituents’ experiences that highlight this problem affecting many people. We all know members of our own families who are affected.

[Steven Paterson (Stirling) (SNP)]

I do not come to this debate with any great expertise, but my gran suffered greatly with arthritis, which affected the joints in her hands and legs and basically left her housebound. Does he agree that one of the real benefits of today’s debate—I pay great tribute to those who have secured it—is that we can raise awareness of the condition more widely, and that it is incumbent on all of us to go forward from this debate and do that?

[Martyn Day]

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend.

The scale and significance of this issue has been clearly illustrated by several key statistics that we have heard today. Several speakers have told us how each year, a fifth of the population consult their GP about musculoskeletal problems. There are 30.6 million working days lost each year to arthritis, which account for a fifth of all working days lost. Scottish estimates tell us that 60,000 people have rheumatoid arthritis, and 2,500 people are diagnosed each year. One in five people in Scotland experience chronic pain and one in 20 experience severe, disabling chronic pain, with the back and joints being the most common location for chronic pain. Arthritis Care has estimated that approximately 800,000 to 900,000 people in Scotland alone are living with osteoarthritis.

All those figures highlight the enormity of the issue. However, we must remember that data collection and management is particularly poor for arthritis and musculoskeletal issues and it needs to improve if we are to get a clearer picture of the numbers across Scotland and the rest of the UK. That point was made by my colleague, the hon. Member for Strangford.

On a positive note, Scotland is the only nation in the UK to routinely publish data on chronic pain. That is welcome, as we have one in 20 living with disabling chronic pain that has a serious impact on physical wellbeing and mental health issues. There is no doubt that arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions can be very disabling, and we must take action to raise awareness about the conditions and improve musculoskeletal health —be that by promoting physical activity, tackling obesity or using medicines.

The hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes) made a point that we should all echo about carers’ work, which is often overlooked. In my constituency —I am sure this will be the case for most—we have a number of support groups for arthritis sufferers. The central arthritis self-help group in Grangemouth is a good example, with monthly meetings including entertainment and social events, along with talks on health and other subjects. The group also organises outings, hydrotherapy and exercise sessions. As a society, we owe a debt of gratitude to groups such as that for the work they do and to everyone else who is helping sufferers.

There is much that can be done for sufferers. One of the most important things is faster diagnosis of conditions such as inflammatory arthritis, as with earlier treatment, they can be controlled better. In Scotland, there is much focus on tackling obesity, both to prevent and to treat musculoskeletal conditions. We must strive to do more to improve diets and encourage physical activity—in saying that, however, I recognise the point made by the hon. Member for Neath (Christina Rees) about sport-related conditions.

In my area, a good example is Together for Health—often known as T4H—which is a community-based project that works to promote healthy lifestyles in the Armadale and Fauldhouse areas within my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Hannah Bardell). It works in partnership with a range of local organisations, businesses and community groups to promote healthy lifestyles and delivers a variety of activities and events to encourage people to move more and eat better, with the overall aim of reducing childhood obesity.

Key messages of the project include the benefits of a balanced, affordable diet, and encouragement of children and families to be more physically active and spend less time doing sedentary activities. That is not just a Scottish or a UK problem, of course. We have a global ageing population and although the link between arthritis and ageing is well known in our own countries, there are fewer data on how older people in lower and middle-income countries are affected.

What we do know, however, is alarming. The World Health Organisation estimates that 9.6% of men and 18% of women aged over 60 have symptomatic osteoarthritis, and that 25% of those with osteoarthritis cannot perform the major daily activities of life. Taking action internationally is important for the millions of older people who are directly affected, but it also has an impact on the lives of many of those who depend on them. Often older people in developing countries are the main carers of children whose parents have had to leave for work or who have been orphaned due to conflict or illnesses such as HIV.

In conclusion, it is important that we do more locally and internationally to help alleviate these conditions, and we must make preventive measures a greater priority.