Osteoarthritis: The Facts

Osteoarthritis: The Facts helps patients and their carers better understand the condition, empowering patients with the knowledge and skills to actively take charge of their own health by knowing as much as they can about osteoarthritis, and finding out how this can be best managed.

Part 1 details what osteoarthritis is, what causes it, who it affects, what the main symptoms are, how it is diagnosed, and what the long-term outcome is. Part 2 explains the potential aspects of management that can be used for osteoarthritis, including self-management strategies, exercise, diet, medications, surgical treatments, and alternative therapies. Osteoarthritis: The Facts also includes a useful resources section, including information on support groups and websites, providing the reader with an opportunity to educate and empower themselves with tools that will help reduce their suffering.

David J. Hunter, Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology, and Professor of Medicine, University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital, Australia,Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, UK,Nigel Arden, Professor in Rheumatic Diseases, Director of Musculoskeletal Epidemiology and Biobank, University of Oxford and Southampton, UK

Professor Hunter is a rheumatology clinician researcher whose main research focus has been clinical and translational research in osteoarthritis (OA). He is the Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney, and Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre. His research is focused on a number of key elements in OA including (but not limited to) the epidemiology of osteoarthritis, the application of imaging to better understand structure and function with application to both epidemiologic research and clinical trials, novel therapies in disease management and heath service system delivery of chronic disease management. He is currently a board member of the International Osteoarthritis Research Society and an editor for leading international journals in his field. He has authored books on osteoarthritis and has over 250 publications in peer reviewed journals.


Dr Daniel Prieto-Alhambra studied Medical Sciences in the period 1996-2002 at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain). He continued his clinical training and became a General Practitioner in 2006. In the years 2007-2009 he obtained an MSc degree in Primary Care Research (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain).
In June 2009 he moved to Oxford and started working as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Musculoskeletal Epidemiology Unit within the Botnar Research Centre. There Dr Prieto-Alhambra completed the research that led to his PhD on the topic Knee osteoarthritis and fractures: a potential role of bisphosphonates in April 2011.
In 2012 he became a Senior Clinical Research Fellow in the Musculoskeletal Epidemiology group and a honorary clinical associate in Bone Metabolism and Rheumatology at the Nuffield Orthopaedics Centre (Headington, Oxford) and Horton Hospital (Banbury).

Part 1: Background to osteoarthritis
1. What is osteoarthritis?
2. Risk factors for osteoarthritis and how to prevent it?
3. Symptoms and signs
4. How is osteoarthritis diagnosed
5. The outlook or prognosis
Part 2: Management of Osteoarthritis
6. The management of osteoarthritis - an overview
7. The role of exercise
8. The role of weight loss
9. Complementary or alternative therapy
10. Medicines used in osteoarthritis
11. Device use
12. Surgical therapy
13. Depression and coping
14. Developing self efficacy and health professionals that can help you
Appendix 1: A typical case history
Appendix 2: Useful addresses
Glossary