The long-awaited results of the Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT) have now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This 24-week study was conducted to assess the safety and efficacy of glucosamine and chondroitin in the management of pain in knee osteoarthritis (OA). While the study overall concluded that glucosamine and chondroitin were not better than placebo in reducing knee pain in the majority of people with OA, it did find that the combination of the two supplements provided significant pain relief for people with moderate-to-severe knee OA. Based on the findings from this study, the Arthritis Foundation recommends that individuals with knee OA speak to their doctors about whether combined glucosamine-chondroitin therapy might be a beneficial addition to their overall treatment plans.

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Low-dose steroids are neither safe nor effective for long-term treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Doctors should abandon the use of low-dose glucocorticoids such as prednisone as an antiquated approach to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in favor of more targeted and safer RA treatments, recommends Kenneth G. Saag, M.D., M.Sc., in a recent commentary. He contends that long-term low-dose glucocorticoids, a type of steroid, simply do not work (their antiinflammatory benefits decline considerably after the first year), and they can cause undue adverse effects and toxicity. High on the list of problems is the dramatic bone loss and resulting fracture risk from prolonged glucocorticoid use. Yet few RA patients are being evaluated and treated for this potential complication.

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Arthritis accounts for a substantial number of hospital admissions each year

Arthritis strikes nearly 18 percent of adults and is the leading cause of disability in the United States. In addition, arthritis accounts for a substantial number of hospitalizations each year, according to a study supported by AHRQ (HS07002 and HS11477). Rutgers University researchers, Dawne M. Harris, M.P.H., and Louise B. Russell, Ph.D., used a simulation model to estimate the impact of arthritis, smoking, and hypertension on the number of hospital admissions in all adults aged 45 to 74, and overweight adults aged 45 to 74. The simulation model was estimated from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) and its Epidemiologic Followup Study (NHEFS) and was then applied to data from NHANES III adults.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of rituximab (Rituxan®) in combination with methotrexate to reduce the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) brings a new treatment option to adult patients with moderately-to-severely active RA who have had an inadequate response to one or more tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist therapies. The Arthritis Foundation applauds the FDA’s decision and believes that new RA therapies targeting key pathways responsible for the disease will better enable physicians to both reduce patients’ disease symptoms and their risk of disability.

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This is a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s section on arthritis. Here you can find the latest arthritis-related public health data.
http://www.cdc.gov/arthritis/data_statistics/arthritis_related_statistics.htm