Steps and PsA risk
Association between accelerometer-measured physical activity and risk of developing psoriatic arthritis in people with psoriasis
Project Lead: Dr Dylan McGagh
Dylan is an Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) in Rheumatology, conducting research between the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) and the OxWearables group at the Big Data Institute at University of Oxford. He has previously completed the Academic Foundation Programme at the University of Oxford where he combined clinical training with research work at NDORMS, establishing the first pilot to collect accelerometry and electronic patient-reported outcomes data in psoriatic arthritis. He was awarded the 2023 BritPACT Pilot Research grant to support a research fellowship exploring the association between accelerometry-measured physical activity and risk of psoriatic arthritis in people with psoriasis. He was awarded the 2025 GRAPPA Dermatology-Rheumatology Collaborative Research Grant for his proposal entitled “MOVE-PsO-FAST: Monitoring Outcomes, Variability, and Evolution in PsOriatic Disease using Functional Activity and Sensor-based Technology”. This will fund an inception cohort of patients across the spectrum of psoriatic arthritis to identify movement phenotypes associated with transition to PsA. This has been expanded into a PhD Fellowship funded by the NIHR which he will commence in August 2026. He is also a founding member of the EULAR Digital Health & Technology study group and the Chair-Elect of Young-GRAPPA
Lay Abstract
Around one in three people with psoriasis will develop psoriatic arthritis, but we do not know why some people are affected while others are not. This project used wearable activity monitors to objectively measure physical activity in people with psoriasis and investigate whether movement patterns are linked to future arthritis risk. Using data from the UK Biobank, we found that higher levels of physical activity were associated with a substantially lower risk of developing psoriatic arthritis, with people taking over 10,000 daily steps having a 58% lower risk than those who were least active. These findings support further research into physical activity as a potential modifiable risk factor for psoriatic arthritis.