Two Decades of Development
The origins of the Challenging Arthritis program can be traced back to 1984 when a group of health professionals and consumers held a workshop at The Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

At this meeting a framework was formulated for the development of a self-management program for people with arthritis.

This framework guided the development of the Arthritis Education Program coordinated by the Arthritis Foundation of NSW.

The program was continuously reviewed and analysis of the participant feedback received guided the updates and revision.

Evaluation
The intervention was evaluated by a prospective study with a questionnaire being given to 100 patients and 95 matched but non-random controls at pre-program baseline, one month, three months and one year. (Lindroth Y, Brooks PM, et al 1989. A controlled Evaluation of Arthritis Education).

The intervention group participated in a comprehensively planned six session behaviourally based program. This group demonstrated improvements in knowledge, self-reported health behaviour and disability scores at 12 months, compared to the controls.
No differences were reported between the control and intervention group regarding symptoms, carrying out treatment instructions or pain perception.

The framework for developing this Challenging Arthritis online self-management program used the early arthritis education programs as described above and the Arthritis Handbook 2nd edition 1996, Arthritis Foundation of NSW which was published by MacLennan & Petty Pty Limited Sydney as reference material.