About the Alliance 
The Osteoarthritis (OA) Action Alliance is a national coalition of concerned organizations mobilized by the Arthritis Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This coalition is committed to elevating OA as a national health priority and promoting effective policy solutions that aim to address the individual and national toll of OA. In addition, the OA Action Alliance, with the public health community, is working to ensure people with OA have the access, skills and capacity to benefit from effective and proven interventions.
Vision Statement
We envision a nation where osteoarthritis is prevented and managed to improve the quality of life for Americans of all ages.
Mission Statement
The Osteoarthritis Action Alliance will prevent and control osteoarthritis by promoting effective programs, policies, and communication strategies.
Objectives
Specifically, the mission of the Alliance is pursued strategically by:
- Expanding self-management education as a community-based intervention for people with symptomatic OA
- Widely promoting low impact, moderate intensity aerobic physical activity and muscle strengthening exercise as a public health intervention for adults with OA of the hip and/or knee
- Promoting, implementing, and enforcing existing policies and interventions that have been shown to reduce OA-related joint injuries
- Promoting weight management for the prevention and treatment of OA
- Establishing a national policy platform for OA to improve the nation’s health through evidence-based clinical and community prevention and disease control activities, including core public health infrastructure improvement activities
- Expanding systems to deliver evidence-based interventions
- Assuring quality of and equal access to evidence-based interventions for OA
- Improving workplace environments by adopting policies and interventions that prevent onset and progression of OA
- Initiating and sustaining a well designed communication strategy to enhance understanding and change attitudes and behavior among consumers, healthcare providers, policy makers, employers and the business community, and community organizations
- Pursuing research and evaluation to enhance surveillance, better understand risk factors, refine recommended intervention strategies, evaluate workplace interventions, and examine emerging evidence on additional promising interventions.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and affects approximately 27 million Americans. In 2004, OA-related hospital costs alone were estimated at $22.6 billion.
The Osteoarthritis Action Alliance (OAAA) is an independent organization and references made by the OAAA or on this website to any specific commercial or non-commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by any of the individual OAAA member organizations.