Bone & Joint Decade 2000-2010
Musculoskeletal conditions are the most common causes of severe long-term pain and physical disability, affecting hundreds of million of people across the world. The impact from bone and joint disorders on society, the healthcare system and on the individual led to a proposal for the Decade of the Bone and Joint (BJD) from 2000 to 2010.
The goal of BJD is to improve the health-related quality of life for people with musculoskeletal disorders by raising awareness, empowering patients to participate in their health care, promoting cost-effective prevention and treatment, and acquiring research funding. The BJD Steering Committee represents osteoporosis patient groups as well as orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists and specialists in rehabilitation medicine. IOF Board Member Dr. Ghassan Maalouf represents IOF on the Steering Committee.
Launch of the BJD
In conjunction with the Decade’s official launch in January 2000, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland – then Director General of the WHO – gave her views on the importance of musculoskeletal disorders, and osteoporosis in particular, to the burden of disease in both the developed and developing world. She noted that "the available data leave little doubt that osteoporosis is reaching epidemic proportions". The WHO aims to prevent chronic musculoskeletal diseases by integrating them into comprehensive noncommunicable disease prevention and control programs. Dr. Brundtland highlighted the role of the Bone & Joint Decade 2000-2010 in improving the health-related quality of life for people with musculoskeletal disorders throughout the world.
International support for the BJD included official recognition by the UN. This support, together with that of the WHO and the World Bank, greatly enhanced and strengthened the credibility of the Decade. At the time, Mary Anderson, former IOF Executive Director and BJD steering committee member, said "We are looking for synergies between IOF and the Decade, because in the nonprofit world it makes sense to pool available resources for maximum benefit."
To help create these synergies at a national level, a national coordinator has been appointed for every nation to form a National Action Network (NAN) of professional and patient organisations involved in musculoskeletal disorders. IOF encourages its member societies to contact NAN coordinators in their countries (see BJD website).
