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Almost 1 billion people are projected to be living with osteoarthritis by 2050, up from about 600 million in 2023, and there remains no cure and no drug that can stop or slow the disease, according to a new roadmap published in The Lancet.

A Curtin University–led group of international researchers is calling for stronger health policy action to arrest the growing global disability burden.

Released on World Arthritis Day, a new health policy roadmap, published in The Lancet, finds that osteoarthritis remains underrecognized in health policies globally, inadequately integrated into health care delivery for chronic diseases, and inconsistently and often inappropriately treated and prevented.

Lead author professor Andrew Briggs from Curtin University's School of Allied Health said that health systems internationally are not primed to prevent and manage the rising burden of osteoarthritis, particularly in low- and middle-income settings.

"Osteoarthritis faces an image problem—it's perceived and dismissed in communities as an unavoidable part of aging with limited management options, it is not integrated into service models for chronic diseases, and it remains largely invisible in national health policies," Briggs said.

"The scale of the burden of osteoarthritis demands a health policy response that recognizes and measures the burden, integrates osteoarthritis care with other conditions, and targets prevention through excess body weight and joint injury control measures.

"Community beliefs around osteoarthritis also need to shift from a narrative that it's an older person's condition and nothing can be done to a narrative that empowers people to manage their symptoms and maintain their valued life activities."

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