Pain, Mood, Illness Perceptions and Fatigue in Juvenile Arthritis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the interrelationship between pain, mood, illness perceptions and fatigue in young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
IRAS ID
210822
Contact name
Hema Chaplin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King’s College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 0 days
Research summary
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is an autoimmune condition causing pain, swelling and stiffness of the joints, with age of onset under 16. Around 30-50% will continue to require treatment into young adulthood, with pain and fatigue persisting despite good disease management. Young adulthood is an important time for psycho-social development and for fully understanding and being in control of their disease. Therefore it is important to assess the role of mood and illness perceptions.
Young people at the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology have emphasised the extent to which pain and fatigue affect their daily lives, and they want psychological research to be more of a priority. Very few studies have been conducted in this young adult population with chronic musculoskeletal conditions, and none have explored the relationship of pain, mood, illness perceptions and fatigue.
This will be an exploratory mixed-methods study looking at interrelationships between these elements to find associations. Target population will be young people aged 16-25 with JIA attending outpatient clinics at University College London Hospital. Target sample size is 40-50, with 5-8 young people taking part in semi-structured interviews/focus groups. Consent will be obtained and a questionnaire pack given to complete in the outpatient clinic. Interviews/Focus groups will take place within the Centre at UCL, and these will explore more thoroughly young people’s thoughts on their pain, fatigue, disease and psychological health.
Data regarding disease activity and clinical outcomes will be collected from routinely collected clinical records. Materials will include measures on pain (Adolescent Paediatric Pain Tool), mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), illness perceptions (Brief Illness Perceptions Questionnaire), and fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Fatigue). Quantitative associations between these measures, disease burden, work/social functioning, health and quality of life and developmental milestones will be investigated, and qualitative thematic analysis undertaken.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0202
Date of REC Opinion
21 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion