Category: Research

Psoriatic arthritis PSP top ten launched

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The British Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium has worked with the James Lind Alliance to run a priority setting partnership (PSP), and in August launched their ‘Top Ten’ list of research priorities for psoriatic arthritis. These have been agreed upon by patients, carers and clinicians, and the launch marks the culmination of the psoriatic arthritis PSP research.

Brit-PACT is delighted to reveal the Top Ten Psoriatic Arthritis Research Priorities, agreed upon by people who are living with psoriatic arthritis, carers and healthcare professionals.…

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Impacts of COVID-19 on deconditioning and falls

Public Health England has published a report on the wider impacts of COVID-19 on physical activity, deconditioning and falls in older adults. The study modelled the likely effect of the decrease in strength and balance activity observed during the pandemic on people who experience a fall, the number of falls and associated health and social care costs.

Key findings

Some of the key findings were:

  • 32% of older people were inactive between March to May 2020. This has increased from 27% in the corresponding period in 2019;
  • average duration of strength and balance activity decreased from 126 to 77 minutes per week, with the greatest change in the 70 to 74 age group;
  • without mitigation, modelling predicts that 110,000 more older people (an increase of 3.9%) are projected to have at least one fall per year as a result of reduced strength and balance activity during the pandemic.
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Working in partnership with patients to extend the benefits of pain management programmes

Guest blog by Dr Michelle Farr, Research Fellow at University of Bristol and the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West)

People who experience long-term pain have important insights and strategies that help them manage pain in everyday life. However, they are often not invited to share their knowledge and skills to inform the services that are meant to support them. ARMA has been highlighting the importance of working in partnership with patients and how co-production, where patients and professionals work together, can improve pain services.…

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Health Foundation report: Waiting for care

Waiting for care: Understanding the pandemic’s effects on people’s health and quality of life looks at how the suspension of routine NHS care has affected people’s health and wellbeing via two case studies – hip replacements and diabetes.

In 2020, as a result of the pandemic, 58,000 fewer people than usual had a hip replacement and are therefore waiting. Those waiting are particularly likely to be in certain regions of England, are slightly more likely to be older and slightly more likely to be living in deprived areas.…

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Have your say on the Musculoskeletal Advanced Practice and Governance Framework

Advanced Musculoskeletal (MSK) practice has been developing for many years, playing an integral part within the delivery of health services nationally. MSK practitioners work in diverse settings including emergency, rheumatology, persistent pain, paediatric and therapies, as well as in primary and community care and in MSK secondary care interface services.

Skills for Health is inviting feedback on a new core capability framework for MSK Advanced Practice and Governance. They are keen to hear from Advanced Practitioners, Advanced Practitioners in training, the wider healthcare team, employers, training providers, patients and carers to ensure the framework reflects what is needed in the sector.…

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Chronic pain: Unseen, unequal, unfair

A few years ago, Versus Arthritis funded the inclusion of a chronic pain questionnaire in the Health Survey for England. The findings from these questions are stark. Of great concern is that 5.5 million people in England (12% of the population) have high-impact chronic pain, the most severe form, which means a person struggles to take part in daily activities such as self-care, family, community and work.

Versus Arthritis’ new report, ‘Chronic pain in England: Unseen, unequal, unfair’ sets out key findings from the survey (initially analysed by Public Health England) and a series of recommendations which call for a fundamental re-think in how we support people with chronic pain through far-reaching solutions.…

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University of Manchester pain research

The University of Manchester is looking for people with arthritis or any other long-term musculoskeletal pain condition to take part in the Manchester Digital Pain Manikin study.

  • Do you have arthritis or any other long-term musculoskeletal pain condition?
  • Are you interested in improving the way long-term pain is measured?

As part of a thirty day study, participants will make a daily report on their pain using the Manchester Digital Pain Manikin app.

Open the feasibility flyer here for more details and follow the links within.

Royal Osteoporosis Society launches its largest ever survey

The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) has launched its 2021 ‘Life with osteoporosis’ survey, to help understand the impact of osteoporosis on the lives of people living with the condition.

Following the previous ‘Life with osteoporosis’ survey conducted in 2014, the ROS aims for this to be the largest survey of its kind – so please share it with relevant audiences.

The survey is open to anyone living with osteoporosis and the results will be used to:

  • build a full picture of what it’s like to live with osteoporosis, including its impact on day-to-day life, relationships, independence and body image
  • inform an APPG Inquiry to engage parliamentarians and improve NHS services
  • understand whether people’s experiences of living with osteoporosis have changed since the last survey took place in 2014, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The survey is open until Thursday 8 July 2021 and takes around 15-25 minutes to complete.…

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Recommendations for the implementation of self-management strategies in IA

NRAS’ National Patient Champion Ailsa Bosworth is the joint convenor (with Elena Nikiphorou, King’s) and a senior author of the paper entitled ‘2021 EULAR recommendations for the implementation of self-management strategies in patients with inflammatory arthritis’ published in the Annuls of Rheumatic Disease last week. These important recommendations come at a crucial time when rheumatology teams are reviewing how they deliver patient-centred care going forward as we come out of the pandemic, and will be presented at EULAR 2021 in June in a session on ‘Mastering Self-management: State of art in a New Era.’…

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