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‘Be Fierce. Take Control.’ campaign tackles racial disparity in lupus diagnosis
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CHICAGO — In an effort to diminish time-to-diagnosis among black and Latino women at elevated risk for lupus, the ACR and the Lupus Foundation of America unveiled at the ACR/ARHP 2018 annual meeting, a digital campaign intended to raise awareness of lupus in these at-risk populations and provide information on what these women should do next.
“This campaign is meant for women who have symptoms that could be lupus but lack a diagnosis,” R. Paola Daly, MPH, director of research at the Lupus Foundation of America, told Healio Rheumatology. “We wanted to address the problem that there are pervasive symptoms often attached to lupus, but these symptoms are sometimes vague and could be attributed to other diseases. Symptoms such as pain, joint pain and fatigue could be a result of many other diseases, but they could also be lupus when paired with other symptoms.”
“We know that most patients who are eventually diagnosed with lupus do present with these types of symptoms, so we wanted to provide an outlet for women experiencing these symptoms to give them information, specifically about lupus,” Daly said. “The campaign essentially takes the patient through several behavioral steps to seek help if it is appropriate, walks the patient through common questions, such as ‘what is lupus?’ and ‘what are lupus symptoms?’ then offers instruction for what patients experiencing these symptoms should do next.”