The Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study (CAPS)
Disease - Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Lead applicant - Professor Wendy Thomson
Organisation - University of Manchester
Type of grant - Special Strategic Award
Status of grant - Active
Amount of the original award - £379,771
Start date - 1 January 2014
Reference - 20542
Public Summary
What are the aims of this research?
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common type of arthritis to affect children and young people, but not everyone who develops the disease is affected to the same extent. At the moment it is not possible to know which children with JIA will get better on their own and which will require long-term medication. This research aims to find out whether there are any predictors of what will happen to a child in the future.
Why is this research important?
Research conducted into this disease so far has focused on identifying why a child might develop JIA. Much less is known about why children are affected by the disease to different extents. Around one-third of children diagnosed with JIA are estimated to have symptoms into adulthood and up to 60% of all patients continue to have some restrictions in their day-to-day activities. Being able to know the likely long-term effects of the disease on an individual child should have a big impact on affected children and their families.
A wide range of information is being collected over time from over 1400 children with JIA, building on work already funded by Versus Arthritis. By analysing this information, it will be possible to start to understand different factors which determine how severely a child is likely to be affected with JIA.
How will the findings benefit patients?
The findings of this research will lead to an improved ability to predict the future for a child diagnosed with JIA. The results will provide parents, children, and healthcare professionals with better information to allow selection of the best treatment choices for individual children from the earliest stages of disease.