Help

The American Arthritis Society wants to help you find trustworthy, unbiased, and understandable osteoarthritis (OA) information quickly and easily so that you can make informed decisions about your health. If you need further assistance, please choose from these options:

Two Options:
(1) Contents of this Website:
If you are searching for any contents related to osteoarthritis, or the American Arthritis Society itself, please turn to the HOME page and use the "search for ..." function on the lower left of that page. To turn to the Home page now, please click here.

(2) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
If you have any questions relating to the handling of this website or other non-medical aspects, please check the list of Frequently Asked Questions following below, or use the search function of this FAQ database and please click here.

You may also check the list of FAQs directly:
To understand some basic features of this website, please review the following suggestions:

I still cannot find the information I'm looking for. What now?
Try using our "Search for ..." tool, which is located in the left bottom corner of each page. To search, simply type a word in the box and click the GO button.

There's so much information here. Sometimes I have trouble finding my way around.
We've organized our site into several major sections, all accessible from the home page. You can always get back to the home page by clicking the HOME button in the upper right corner of any page.

Isn't there any way to communicate with a live person?
If you need immediate assistance, please call our American Arthritis Information Center at 877-294-7062 to answer your questions from 7:00 a.m. thru 10:00 p.m. EST. If you call any other time please leave your phone number and a brief message in our voice-mail, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. You can also send a fax at: 877-294-7064.

Sometimes I have trouble printing all of the information on my screen. What can I do to fix this?
Look for the "Printer-Friendly Page" icon on the page you're trying to print. Clicking that icon will take you to a page that is specially formatted for easy printing. Otherwise, you may need to change your printer's page orientation from "Portrait" to "Landscape."

Why is it necessary for me to download files?
In order to improve the site's performance and make it easier for you to find what you're looking for, we've moved some of our most data-rich files off of the pages themselves. By downloading a file, you'll get the detailed information you want without having to navigate through pages and pages on the Web. Examples of files available for downloading include PDF files, and Microsoft Word documents. The next questions and answers contain more specific information about those file types.

What is a PDF file and why do I need to download special software to view it?
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that captures all the elements of a document. To view PDF files, you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you don't have it, you can download it for free from Adobe's Web site. Once you've downloaded the Reader, it will start automatically whenever you want to look at a PDF file.

My computer doesn't have Microsoft Word. Can I still read the Word documents on the site?
Yes. Most other office suites, such as StarOffice, Lotus, and WordPerfect, can read Word files. If yours cannot, you can download a free converter from Microsoft that will enable you to read Word documents.