Established in 1988 to increase public awareness of ankylosing spondylitis and related diseases and to disseminate knowledge of the diseases around the world
Related diseases: Ankylosing spondylitis sometimes overlaps with psoriasis, with an inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis), or with the eye conditions uveitis or iritis. These overlapping conditions as well as Reiter's disease, reactive arthritis, and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis, form together the group of related diseases collectively known as «spondyloarthritides» or «spondyloarthropathies».
According to scientific literature, the prevalence of ankylosing spondylitis is about 0.5% among the adult "white" population and the prevalence of the whole spondyloarthritis group is about 1,7%. In the native population of Northern parts of Europe and America the prevalence is higher, and in Eastern Asia and in Southern continents the prevalence is lower.
For details on these conditions visit for instance the «Guidebook
for Patients» of the British "National Ankylosing
Spondylitis Society".
For details in other languages visit the web sites of corresponding AS
societies.
Literature on ankylosing spondylitis offered by the patient organisations is listed in the web-sites of the AS societies. Books on ankylosing spondylitis available also in book shops are listed with their ISBN numbers in a separate list of Books on ankylosing spondylitis. A decription of a booklet on assessment scores and classification and diagnosis criteria for AS published by ASIF is also shown, as well as forms for the assessment of AS in several languages.
An overview of the AS patient organisations existing today is shown under National AS societies and in the World map indicating where AS societies exist.
If there is no AS society in your country, you find here hints How to set up a new AS patient organisation.
More about ASIF may be found in pages on the Aims
of ASIF, on ASIF's
Executive Committee, on the ASIF
constitution, on the ASIF
history, on the contents
of distributed issues of "ASIF News", and on Scientific
studies initiated by ASIF.