Raising Awareness of Juvenile Arthritis

It’s true that when most people hear arthritis, they consider it an older person’s disease. However, there are many forms of arthritis that affect children and teens, and July is regarded as Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month.

According to the CDC, there are nearly 300,000 children in the US diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), also called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is one prevalent form that impacts 50,000 children in the US. Other forms of juvenile arthritis include systemic onset JIA or Still’s disease, oligoarticular JIA, polyarticular JIA, enthesitis-related arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

Since no parent has arthritis on the brain, the initial symptoms of juvenile arthritis are mistaken for swollen joints and fever from the flu, or a sudden rash accompanying an allergic reaction. Because arthritis symptoms can ebb before flaring up again, it can take a long time for an accurate diagnosis.

The various forms of arthritis present a different degree of symptoms and life expectancy, but JIA is very unique because it’s an autoimmune disease. A young person’s immune system isn’t fully developed until about age 18, so JIA is particularly aggressive and can cause severe, lifelong damage which far surpasses the effects of adult rheumatoid arthritis.

Juvenile arthritis can appear in infants as young as 6 months and teens as old as 18 years. The primary symptoms include joint pain, red joints and swelling that will not dissipate. The more joints affected, the more severe the disease, and the less likelihood of achieving total remission. If you have a child with swollen, achy joints, don’t hesitate to get them into their pediatrician for further assessment.