INSPIRE-Flare
Research type
Research Study
Full title
INSPIRE-Flare: Investigating flares, triggers and prodromes in rheumatology patient survey.
IRAS ID
351763
Contact name
Carolyn Read
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) are diseases where the body's immune system becomes over-active and attacks itself. This can lead to many different symptoms, disability, and even early death in some cases. Disease symptoms often come and go in a relapsing remitting pattern. Periods of increased disease activity are known as flares. Flares not only make people’s quality of life worse but can also cause permanent damage to the body.
Flares often occur without an obvious cause, but there is some evidence that flares can be triggered or prevented by factors like diet, stress, medication and other changes in people’s lives. Understanding what triggers or prevents flares may help patients and doctors predict or prevent flares, improving treatment, quality of life and health outcomes for SARD patients.
SARD patients may experience certain symptoms just before flares as 'bad signs' that a flare is about to happen, known as prodromes. Prodromes are under-researched, wide-ranging between different SARDs and different patients, and not well understood by clinicians or included in current disease guidelines. Our previous studies have shown that including patient views and experiences of flares has many benefits for diagnosis and patient experience.
The INSPIRE-Flare study aims to look at how often people experience different triggers, preventers and ‘bad signs’ that a flare is coming in different SARDs through a survey. We will then look to see if there are any similarities or differences between different people and different disease groups. The survey will be available to all SARD patients and will also ask about how patients identify triggers, preventers and prodromes and whether awareness of these improves flare management.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0079
Date of REC Opinion
12 Feb 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion