Arthritis
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50 free Arthritis trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Arthritis is not one disease but a large family of conditions that leave joints painful, stiff and swollen. Some come from years of mechanical wear, some from the body's own defences turning on healthy tissue, and some from crystals forming where they should not. They affect people of every age, and they have shaped the lives of monarchs, painters, athletes and scientists. This quiz covers the differences between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, the signs doctors look for, and the story of gout from ancient remedies to modern prevention. It also takes in lupus, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and childhood arthritis, the medicines used to treat them, and a few folk cures and myths. It is written for anyone living with arthritis or caring for someone who is, for nursing and medical students who want a quick revision round, and for quiz fans who enjoy medical history. Every answer comes with a short explanation. It is a quiz for learning, not a substitute for medical advice.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Compounds of which precious metal were injected into muscle for decades to slow rheumatoid arthritis?
Gold
Gold salts eased inflammation in rheumatoid joints, a treatment known as chrysotherapy. Side effects and slow action cut their use from the 1980s, and the main injectable form was discontinued in 2019.
Q 02A badly arthritic skeleton found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in 1908 gave which extinct humans their stooped image?
Neanderthals
Neanderthals were pictured slouching for over thirty years after Marcellin Boule rebuilt this old man with bent knees and a curveless spine, errors later blamed partly on his severe osteoarthritis.
Q 03Which spoof award honoured Donald Unger, who cracked only his left knuckles for decades to test for arthritis?
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prize for medicine went to Unger in 2009. Neither of his hands ever developed arthritis, and a larger study also found no link with knuckle cracking.
Q 04Which French Impressionist painted for his last twenty years with rheumatoid arthritis crippling his hands?
Renoir
Renoir developed the disease around 1892 and worked until his death in 1919. The tale that brushes were strapped to his fingers is false: an assistant placed them in his hand.
Q 05Which Founding Father, laid up with gout in June 1776, edited Jefferson's draft Declaration of Independence from home?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was too disabled by gout to attend most Committee of Five meetings, so the draft was sent to him. He made a few small but important changes.
Q 06Which tick-borne illness was first identified in 1975 after a cluster of suspected childhood arthritis in Connecticut?
Lyme disease
Lyme disease is named after the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme, where doctors first took the children's swollen joints for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Q 07Podagra is the medical name for a gout attack in which part of the body, struck in about half of cases?
Big toe
The big toe is gout's classic target, at the joint where it meets the foot. The pain usually begins during the night and peaks within a day.
Q 08Which everyday painkiller, discovered by Stewart Adams at Boots in 1961, was launched as a rheumatoid arthritis drug?
Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen was first sold as Brufen in the United Kingdom in 1969. Adams had earlier tried the drug on himself to treat a hangover.
Q 09Which smooth tissue covering bone ends breaks down in osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis?
Cartilage
Cartilage cushions the joint, and as it is lost the bone beneath is damaged too. Fingertips, thumb bases, the neck and the lower back are among the joints most often affected.
Q 10What mistakenly attacks the joints in rheumatoid arthritis, unlike the mechanical wear of osteoarthritis?
Immune system
The immune system makes rheumatoid arthritis a whole-body disease: besides the joints it can affect the skin, lungs, heart, nerves and blood.
Q 11Which painkiller, first made in a pure, stable form at Bayer in 1897, is still used for rheumatoid arthritis and fever?
Aspirin
Aspirin got its trade name in 1899. Chemist Felix Hoffmann later said his father's complaints about a bitter rheumatism drug had prompted the work, though his role is disputed.
Q 12Bracelets of which metal, common in jewellery, are worn as a folk remedy for arthritis pain?
Copper
Copper bracelets worked no better than look-alike ones in trials, one in osteoarthritis and one in rheumatoid arthritis.
Q 13Curcumin, studied as a remedy for osteoarthritis of the knee, is the yellow pigment of which kitchen spice?
Turmeric
Turmeric belongs to the ginger family, and its extracts have only weak evidence of relieving knee osteoarthritis. The pigment was first isolated from its rhizomes in 1815.
Q 21Which blockbuster drug's brand name stands for human monoclonal antibody in rheumatoid arthritis?
Humira
Humira, the antibody adalimumab, was approved in the United States in 2002. It is also used for psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and Crohn's disease.
Q 22Which drug, also a cancer chemotherapy agent, is now one of the first-line treatments for rheumatoid arthritis?
Methotrexate
Methotrexate, once called amethopterin, is taken in low doses for arthritis. It also treats psoriasis, lupus and Crohn's disease.
Q 23Which adrenal hormone, known as Compound E, was first given to rheumatoid arthritis patients at the Mayo Clinic in 1948?
Cortisone
Q 14Which singer with lupus, a disease that inflames joints, received a kidney from her friend Francia Raisa in 2017?
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez revealed her lupus diagnosis in 2015 and later set up a research fund for the disease at the University of Southern California.
Q 15Needle-shaped crystals of which waste product settle in joints and trigger the sudden pain of gout?
Uric acid
Uric acid crystallises when levels in the blood stay high. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the crystals' appearance in 1679.
Q 16Hydroxychloroquine, taken for rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, comes from a drug family made to fight which infection?
Malaria
Malaria is still prevented and treated with the drug where the parasite remains sensitive. For lupus it is considered the first-line treatment.
Q 17Which joint did British surgeon John Charnley pioneer replacing, now a routine operation for severe arthritis?
Hip
Hip replacement, which Charnley refined by working closely with mechanical engineers, is now one of the most common operations in the world.
Q 18Which insect names the red rash across the nose and cheeks seen in lupus, a disease that also inflames joints?
Butterfly
The butterfly rash, which doctors call a malar rash, spreads a wing over each cheek. Joint pain is the complaint that most often sends people with lupus to a doctor.
Q 19Which bird gives its name to a rheumatoid arthritis deformity in which a finger's middle joint bends backwards?
Swan
Swan neck deformity curves the finger like the bird's neck: the middle joint over-extends while the fingertip joint droops. Injuries can cause it too.
Q 20Which habit, acting together with genes, is the most clearly defined environmental risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis?
Smoking
Smoking roughly triples the risk in some populations compared with never lighting up, and the effect is strongest in men and in heavy users of tobacco.
Cortisone eased severe cases when injected in large doses, and within two years Philip Hench and chemist Edward Kendall were honoured in Stockholm for it.
Q 24Which thin membrane lining the inside of joint capsules becomes inflamed and thickened in rheumatoid arthritis?
Synovium
The synovium is rich in small blood vessels that nourish the joint. In rheumatoid arthritis it grows into an invasive layer called pannus that damages nearby tissue.
Q 25Which food do doctors name when describing a whole finger swollen along its length by psoriatic arthritis?
Sausage
Sausage digit is the everyday name for dactylitis, in which an entire digit is inflamed rather than a single joint. It also occurs in ankylosing spondylitis.
Q 26At which time of day is the joint stiffness of rheumatoid arthritis usually at its worst, often lasting hours?
Morning
Early morning brings a rise in inflammatory signals in the blood, which may explain it. Stiffness from osteoarthritis does not last as long.
Q 27On X-rays, the fused vertebrae of advanced ankylosing spondylitis are compared to the stem of which plant?
Bamboo
Bamboo spine appears when the outer fibres of the discs between vertebrae turn to bone, bridging them into one rigid, ridged column.
Q 28Rheumatoid arthritis usually appears in which pattern across the body, a clue that helps tell it from osteoarthritis?
Matching joints on both sides
Matching joints on both sides of the body are typical of rheumatoid arthritis, though the symmetry may be missing at first. Osteoarthritis and gout are more often lopsided.
Q 29Which former world No. 1 tennis player announced in 2018 that she had rheumatoid arthritis?
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki learned of the diagnosis shortly before the US Open and said she wanted to become a role model for people with the condition.
Q 30In about one in six children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which organs develop an inflammation called uveitis?
Eyes
The eyes are most at risk in girls under six, and nine in ten chronic cases appear within four years of the arthritis being diagnosed.