Arthritis is a broad term for a group of conditions that cause severe pain in the joints. Most of these start when the cartilage starts to break down. Sharp “needle-shaped” crystals build up in the joints, causing more severe types of arthritis like gout.

But this is not the only problem people with Arthritis face.

Sandra Purdy, 61, from Churwell near Leeds, was forced to change careers due to the severe discomfort caused by Ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis causing inflammation in the spine and other parts of the body.

“I had problems with pain since my late teens, and was misdiagnosed several times,” she said.

“When I was younger I had manual jobs but the pain meant I often couldn’t work. There’s a stigma in saying you have back pain at work, so I tried to hide it but that got more difficult as the pain became worse.”

According to the findings of a recent study, people with arthritis in the United Kingdom are 20% less likely to be employed than their counterparts without the condition.

The most surprising result was that women over 60 who didn’t go to college were at least 37% less likely to be working if they had arthritis, compared to the same group of people who didn’t have arthritis.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Leeds and published today, compared a group of 18,000 patients with arthritis to another group of 18,000 people who were the most comparable to the first group in terms of several characteristics. Age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, and location were all taken into account.

According to the study, the effects of arthritis on people’s ability to work vary greatly depending on their age, degree of education, and gender.

“We already know that arthritis is more common amongst women and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Our new findings show that substantial inequalities also exist in terms of how the work outcomes of these groups are affected by arthritis,” added Principal Investigator Dr. Adam Martin.

The study showed that people with arthritis are less likely to be working when they reach middle age than those who don’t have arthritis. Many of these people will have left their jobs early. In general, this effect is stronger for people who did not go to college. This may be because symptoms may be easier to deal with in professional jobs than in manual jobs.

And until they become 60, both men’s and women’s odds of finding employment while dealing with arthritis are much lower than those who do not have the disease.

The percentage decrease in each group’s chance of working when compared to their peers without arthritis is shown in the chart below.

People with arthritis were also substantially less likely to be employed than those without it, especially if they had a history of working in regular or intermediate occupations (such as bartenders or paramedics). This was not the case for those engaged in professional jobs (such as lawyers or architects). For this group, arthritis did not seem to impair the probability of employment, but some individuals with arthritis worked fewer hours and had lower wages. Particularly for working women over 40, this was true.

Among adults with arthritis, those with a history of working for small private firms were usually less likely to be employed than those who had worked for bigger organizations or the government. According to the team’s interactions with individuals living with arthritis, this might be attributed to smaller enterprises having fewer resources or opportunities for them to modify work patterns or take up different jobs.

Sandra added: “Eventually I started looking for an office job which I thought would be more manageable. I got a job in a bank but sitting down all day was worse. Due to morning stiffness, I needed to get up at 4.30am to be ready for 7.30am. I needed crutches and sticks to walk at the start of the day. I wouldn’t need them by the end of the day so I’d worry that people thought I was making it up. But during a bad flare up, the pain would last all day and I couldn’t move.”

And when she was 45, she “developed iritis, a painful eye condition which causes swelling and irritation in the iris.”

She “was referred to a rheumatologist and had an MRI scan, and they diagnosed me with ankylosing spondylitis.”

“I took part in a trial for a drug called infliximab, which was liquid gold. It changed my life – but at the end of the trial I had a severe flare up. Because of this I was moved onto a different drug called adalimumab, which I still take now. However, it lowers my immune system, so I pick up a lot of bugs.

“I found a new job with a more understanding employer, where I could move about during the day. I now have a management role so I’m less customer-facing, and I can work from home.

“I hear a lot of people at my hospital patient participation group talking about how they have been treated and their employers aren’t great.

“I have always worried about losing my job, especially at first. I left school with no qualifications so I had to sit exams in English and maths to get work in an office. I’ve had to adapt but not everyone can do this.

“Patients need better access to diagnostics and more joined up thinking between employers and the health service.”

Dr. Martin added: “In light of this research, people living with arthritis told us that potential interventions could involve making appropriate adjustments to the working environment, tackling workplace discrimination and supporting changes in people’s roles.

“Existing evidence suggests that providing personalised case management by an occupational health practitioner could help to encourage constructive dialogue between employees, healthcare practitioners and employers.

“Our study indicates that such support could be especially cost-effective if it is designed for and targeted for the people we identified who are most at risk of poor work outcomes.”

Source: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115606

Image Credit: Getty