The obesity conundrum
Childhood obesity and time to diagnosis, treatment and early outcome in juvenile psoriatic arthritis
Through the Brit-PACT-funded project “The obesity conundrum: Childhood obesity and time to diagnosis, treatment and early outcome in juvenile psoriatic arthritis,” she is investigating how obesity may influence disease recognition, treatment decisions, and early outcomes in this rare condition. The ultimate goal is to support more equitable, evidence-based care for children and young people living with psoriatic arthritis.
Project Lead: Dr Stephanie Shoop-Worrall (she/her)
Stephanie Shoop-Worrall (she/her) is an MRC Career Development Fellow in Epidemiology and Data Science at the University of Manchester. Her research largely focuses on children and young people with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and adults with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). She’s particularly interested in finding groups of people who might need different treatments, fairer access to treatments across the lifecourse, and how clinical care can be improved through better use of real-world data.
Lay Abstract
Obesity is known to increase an adult’s risk of developing psoriatic arthritis. Once they have psoriatic arthritis, those who are overweight/obese face worse symptoms, lower effects of treatment and more diseases that develop alongside their psoriatic arthritis.
It is possible that obesity plays a role in children with psoriatic arthritis, in the same or different ways than in adults. Children are not merely ‘small adults’; they have unique challenges as they grow physically, socially and intellectually. In children with psoriatic arthritis, both the physical effects and social stigma of obesity could affect their speed of diagnosis, treatment and outcome of their disease. Dosing of drugs in children can either be calculated by actual or ideal bodyweight. We don’t know how dosing choice affects treatment success for obese children with psoriatic arthritis. The only information we have is that children with psoriatic arthritis tend to be more overweight than those with other types of juvenile arthritis.
This project will understand how obesity affects i) time between symptoms starting and a diagnosis, ii) which treatments are chosen, iii) the dose of the drugs chosen, and iv) how effective first drugs are. It will use information from ~500 children and young people with juvenile psoriatic arthritis from across the UK who are part of one of three UK-wide cohorts.
Extensive PPIE will be included given the extremely sensitive topic of weight in children and teenagers.
This project will lay the foundation for a larger body of work on lifestyle and juvenile psoriatic arthritis, taking diet, exercise, school and hobbies into account.