National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) explores UK patient concerns connecting stress and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
NORMANDY PARK, WA, USA, June 27, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Inmedix®, Inc. (“Inmedix”) announced today the publication of a monograph evaluating how UK patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) perceive the impact of stress on their disease onset, activity and treatment outcomes. Funded by a $50,000 (US) unrestricted educational grant by Inmedix, the leading patient advocacy organization in the UK, the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) independently conducted online individual interviews following an online nationwide survey of people living with RA.Initially, NRAS conducted UK RA patient focus groups about stress, including a detailed survey and analysis with patients. The purpose was to follow up on earlier comments from UK patients about their concerns that the broader clinical, medical research, and pharmaceutical communities were not recognizing stress as an impactful component of life.
Respondents included 1,265 adult patients: 87% women, 70% over 55 years old and 91% Caucasian British.1 Nearly a majority (45.7%) had RA for over 10 years. Of note, 76% felt that stress influenced the onset of their inflammatory joint symptoms. The top five stressors associated with triggering flares were: significant life events (55%), family commitments (50%), work commitments (37%), relationship issues (32%) and financial concerns (28%).
Most (75%) of the patients had not been asked about their mental health during routine appointments and 76% of patients had never been offered support to manage their stress.
“Individual citizens living with long-term conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or juvenile arthritis (JIA), know the day-to-day limitations and impact of their disease,” said NRAS CEO Clare Jacklin. “It therefore makes sense to ask the 'end user' of research outcomes what it is they feel would benefit them to be investigated,”
“Patient organisations like ours have had a profound positive impact on improving research projects by harnessing the input of people with lived experience. We urge researchers of the future to engage with patients and organisations representing patients, at the time of that first kernel of a research question - and not at the 11th hour when ready to 'recruit' to their studies. It is then that working in partnership that patients, researchers and patient organisations can design studies that will improve lives.”
“Patient perspectives should be the most important components of quality medical care,” said Inmedix CEO and rheumatologist Andrew J. Holman MD, “and NRAS has a remarkable history of hitting the mark and executing their projects with independence and scientific rigor. Our profound thanks go to subsidiary Inmedix UK Ltd. Manager Daniel Austen; lead author Emma Caton, Research Assistant, King’s College London; co-authors Clare Jacklin, Sam Norton PhD, Reader in Research Methods and Statistics, King’s College London; and the remarkable team at NRAS who created the ‘Stress Matters’ Survey Report.”
Inmedix played no role in the study except to provide funding to support this NRAS initiative. Intentionally, no Inmedix products or research were included in the report.
References
1. https://nras.org.uk/product/stress-matters-report/
About NRAS
The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) is a registered charity in England and Wales (1134859) and Scotland (SC039721). A private company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales (7127101). VAT: 371541506
About Inmedix, Inc. and its subsidiary, Inmedix UK, Ltd.
Seattle-based biotech/medtech Inmedix, Inc. and its subsidiary Inmedix UK, Ltd., are committed to engaging in world class research to discover innovative solutions for pressing healthcare needs related to the impact of stress modulated within the brain by the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
NOTICE:
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For more information, visit http://www.inmedix.com
Andrew Holman
Inmedix Inc.
+1 206-412-5347
andrew.holman@inmedix.com