Autoimmune Disease Misconceptions Are Wide Spread

More than 50 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases, yet many misconceptions still exist in the space of autoimmune awareness. The American Autoimmune Related Disease Association (AARDA) recently partnered with Toluna Quicksurveys to conduct a national survey on general awareness and perceptions. What they found was a staggering lack of awareness in general knowledge, impact, and cause of autoimmune diseases.

The research conducted by Toluna's surveying software polled 584 respondents within the U.S. Respondents included a mix of both men and women from the ages of 18-65. According to the results, major misconceptions included the following:

• 41% of respondents do not understand the term “autoimmune disease.”
• 40% of respondents believe autoimmune diseases are fatal as opposed to chronic.
• 55% of respondents were not aware that 75% of autoimmune sufferers are women.
• 80% of respondents were not aware that there are over 100 types of autoimmune diseases that exist.
• 28% – or more than a quarter – of respondents either suffer from or have a family member with an autoimmune disease.

AARDA's focuses are advocacy, education and public awareness, but also on combating these types of wide spread misconceptions. We spoke to AARDA CEO, Virginia Ladd to learn more.

Can you tell me more about AARDA?
AARDA is dedicated to the eradication of autoimmune diseases and the alleviation of suffering and the socioeconomic impact of autoimmunity through fostering and facilitating collaboration in the areas of education, public awareness, research, and patient services in an effective, ethical, and efficient manner.

How common is autoimmune disease?
Approximately 1 in 5 people have an autoimmune disease.

I see that in February the first Autoimmunity Institute opened at West Penn Hospital; What's AARDA's connection there, and can you tell us more about the Institute?
Yes, it opened in February. It’s the very first center in the United States to offer treatment for all autoimmune diseases, a diagnostic triage, and coordinated research involving all different specialties. AARDA is partnering with the institute because it has been a long-term goal of AARDA’s to have such a facility in the U.S. Patients will now have a center of excellences to go to for diagnosis and coordinated care. It is AARDA’s hope that this model will spread across the country with other medical institutes for better treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases. AARDA is partnership with the institute in to identify the cost of autoimmune disease and the benefit of coordinated care and its impact on healthcare costs.

To learn more, and more importantly, to support the work Virginia and AARDA are doing, please SEE HERE.