Arthritis disproportionately affects women. Yet, arthritis is not often a part of the women’s health conversation.
According to the latest research, one in four women in Canada live with arthritis, compared to one in six men. This means about 3.6 million women are living with arthritis today, and by 2045, this number is projected to rise to 5.5 million. Women are also at higher risk than men of developing autoimmune diseases, including many forms of inflammatory arthritis (for example, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, scleroderma, and vasculitis), as well as chronic pain conditions (including osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia).
The National Survey on Women and Arthritis is for women living with arthritis in Canada. The Survey results will help ACE identify where arthritis care is meeting the needs of women and where critical gaps exist. Based on your lived experiences reported in the Survey, we will create needed resources and better advocate for the health and well-being of women with arthritis.
If you identify as a man, we sincerely appreciate your interest. While this survey is designed specifically for women, we invite you to visit the
Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) website to learn more about our education, advocacy, and resources for everyone living with arthritis.
Participation in the Survey is anonymous.
What am I being asked to share? The Survey asks questions about your arthritis diagnosis, treatment, and care.
The Survey also asks questions regarding economic and social conditions as research has shown that gender, ethnicity, education, income, and geographic location may influence access to health care services and in many cases, health outcomes.
How will the information provided be used? The National Survey will collect important input from women living with arthritis. We will look for patterns and trends in the information so we can better understand the challenges that women with arthritis face.
Your participation is deeply appreciated and contributes to ensuring the voices of women with arthritis are heard in our advocacy work. Arthritis Consumer Experts intends to share the Survey results with researchers, physicians, policy decision-makers and media to advance the understanding of the lived experience of women with arthritis.
How will my privacy be protected? Arthritis Consumer Experts stores survey responses in a secure database in accordance with Canadian research ethics guidelines. All responses are pooled for analysis and your participation remains anonymous. We do not collect any personally identifiable information.
ConsentParticipation in this Survey is voluntary. You can stop the Survey at any time. If you start the Survey and decide you no longer want to participate partway through completing the Survey, your responses will not be included in our pooled analysis. Please do not include any information that could identify you or others when providing written comments (for example, names, addresses or locations).
Completing this Survey will take approximately 15 minutes of your time. Thank you for participating.
Please note to complete the survey, all questions in this Survey require an answer to move on to the next page.
