For people who think of arthritis as a disease of the elderly, learning that children also suffer from arthritic conditions may come as a shock. Across age groups, various forms of arthritis are a growing public health problem in the United States. New cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other types of autoimmune arthritis in young Americans are two to three times higher than in Canada, with cases occurring within the wider context of proliferating pediatric autoimmune disorders. Over one four-year period (2001-2004), the number of ambulatory care visits for pediatric arthritis and other rheumatologic conditions increased by 50 percent.
Currently, one child in 1,000 develops some form of chronic arthritis—about twice the estimated prevalence of the early 1980s.
