According to the charity Arthritis Care, around 10 million people in the UK are living with arthritis. While often thought of as a disease that only affects older people, approximately 27,000 arthritis patients in the UK are under the age of 25 and some are even children. The term arthritis describes inflammation of the joints.

There are around 200 types of the disease, although this module only considers the two most common: osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Neither can be cured, so treatment focuses on symptom management, slowing disease progression and maintaining everyday life for as long as possible.