1 in 3 people ageing from 18 to 64 has some type of arthritis as per recent estimates by Arthritis Foundation. There exist more than 100 types of Arthritis, and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is the most common form of rheumatic arthritis prevalent in children. JIA is a collective term for all the form forms of arthritis that develop in children before the age of 16, persisting for at least 6 weeks, with the origin of cause not known.
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis is a type of synovium inflammation in which the synovial membranes become inflamed, produce more fluid and joints start to swell, pain, and get stiff. The inflammation, if left untreated causes damaged joints, cartilages and bones. Due to the fact that JIA signs and symptoms are volatile in nature, it gets hard to diagnose. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis along with pain and swelling in joints also causes fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, high fever, limping and skin rash, especially in lymph nodes of the neck.
The reason behind the onset of JIA is not yet identified, however, researchers believe that genetic factors coupled with environmental disturbances may be responsible for a subsequent imbalance resulting in articular and systemic manifestations. Factors that may result in an arise of trauma, bacterial or viral infection, and hormone levels not fully understood can be taken as a possible juvenile idiopathic arthritis cause.
Certain disturbance or imbalance such as a particular type of food, toxin, allergic agent, or any vitamin deficiency that may give rise to trauma, bacterial or viral infection, and hormone levels might play a role in the development of JIA. However, many simulations revealed that mutations in certain genes such as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex may trigger the risk of developing Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Possibility of viral agent triggering the start of disease in the children with the genetic tendency is in the picture as well.
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Epidemiology
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis epidemiology is quite complicated to understand. This could be due to the lack of proper diagnostic methods of the condition or due to the abstractedness about the JIA pathogenesis. Most of the times, juvenile idiopathic arthritis does not follow a certain type of inheritance pattern. JIA cases turn out to be sporadic, affecting people with no family history. However, NCBI estimates that a sibling of a person already living with juvenile idiopathic disorder is at risk 12 times higher than the general population.
Going by the figures, Juvenile Idiopathic arthritis prevalence is reported to be 16-150 per 100,000 children worldwide. Geography-wise, JIA affects 1 in 1000 children in the US taking the toll to approximately 294,000 children in the US, as estimated by the National Institutes of Health. A study by Thierry et al., states that Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis prevalence in Europe was 59,175 in the year 2010. Moreover, the study also put forward the shocking fact of girls being more prone to be affected by JIA than boys. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis prevalence, pooled together, was estimated at around 19.4 per 100,000 for girls whereas for boys the numbers were reported 11.0 per 100,000 boys.
