OP0295-PARE ‘kweek begrip’: the launch of our creative campaign across the netherlands on world arthritis day aims to increase awareness about rmds in general and people living with rmds in particular

Background With two million patients, RMDs are one of the most common chronic diseases in the Netherlands. A 2016 Nivel survey showed that 50% of all RMD patients deal with people who know too little about RMDs in order to understand their situation. RMDs are not always visible, and symptoms may vary from day to day. This often leads to friends, colleagues, neighbours and even relatives showing incomprehension. For RMD patients this can lead to loneliness, insecurity and a sense of not being accepted. Understanding RMDs and being able to show compassion starts with knowing about RMDs. Objectives By launching a national creative campaign about incomprehension, the Dutch Arthritis Foundation aims to raise general awareness of RMDs to promote understanding of people with a RMD and to reduce their sense of loneliness. Methods The Dutch Arthritis Foundation started its campaign on World Arthritis Day: ‘Grow awareness, plant a bulb!’. To ‘grow understanding’, we created two special tulip bulb fields, one online and one offline, for participants to plant the special ‘Anita Witzier’ tulip bulb. Anita Witzier is a well-known Dutch television host who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. She has been ambassador for the Dutch Arthritis Foundation since 2001. With the help from 70% of all local RMD patient organisations and a number of garden centres, we handed out a total of 15 000 bags of tulip bulbs across the Netherlands. The campaign kick-off was on World Arthritis Day. The event, held on a tulip breeder’s field, hosted presentations about incomprehension, and served to share real-life stories. We also developed a website where people could plant bulbs digitally. Every week, participants receive a video, cartoon, update or article with information about RMDs. The campaign will run until 21 May 2018 when the (real-life) tulips will bloom in our RMD field. All participants can then visit the field to pick a bunch of flowers. Results The campaign received a great deal of national media attention on WorldArthritisDay, and featured on television programmes, in newspapers and on online platforms. 8000 people have since signed up for the online tulip field, sharing the information with others in their network. The campaign site drew 68 000 visitors between 12Oc and 31Oc tober. The campaign also resonated with people on Facebook. In October, our campaign posts reached 1,869,000 visitors, with more than 65 000 interactions (respond, share, like, watch video, conversion to campaign site). Conclusions Raising awareness for incomprehension can be difficult. A creative approach can help to kickstart a public debate. Responses generally show that people with RMDs appreciate this complicated subject being put on the map. Disclosure of Interest None declared