The Salaso app and patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA).
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Inflammatory Arthritis (IA) and Salaso: Evaluating the perceived usefulness of a digital healthcare application called Salaso in patients with IA.
IRAS ID
206448
Contact name
Lisa Roberts
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 2 days
Research summary
Inflammatory arthritis (IA) encompasses ankylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), connective tissue disease (CTD), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), enteropathic arthritis (EA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Of these conditions, the most commonly treated in the UK are RA, PsA and AS, with RA alone thought to affect 580,000 people. With the average age of those affected by RA being 50 years, the cost of long-term health care may be expensive. When recognising that the costs per patient may be between £3,575 and £3,638 every year, the cost is clear.
The aim of this research is to explore how useful an application called Salaso may be in helping patients with IA improve their health. Salaso is a mobile application that may help physiotherapists build personalised exercise programmes that are supported by high-definition video exercises. These exercises can be communicated by a physiotherapist by email, then a patient can then view these exercises through their mobile, tablet or computer. Previous research has shown that video-based exercise has helped patients understand how to perform the exercises safely. Furthermore, the Salaso application also allows physiotherapists to upload their own video exercises to give to their patients. Patients using the application are able to report any pain, or how much effort they are putting into their exercises and rate any activities they find difficult. Although, the developers of Salaso report the application positively, the usefulness of this application has not been formally evaluated.
This research would involve interviewing patients with IA about their experiences of using the application, so physiotherapists, health professionals, patients and the developers of applications such as Salaso can better understand how useful the applications may be.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
16/NS/0127
Date of REC Opinion
16 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion