Chronic Childhood Arthritis; A new intervention to help young people with chronic childhood arthritis overcome barriers to physical activity and mental wellbeing will be developed by University of South Australia researchers.

The VITAL Project (named for its focus on ValidatIon, undersTanding, and graded, vALued activity prescription) focuses on validating, understanding, and empowering activity in people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), the most common type of arthritis in children and teenagers.

It recently received a $60,000 boost from the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation, through the Health Translation SA Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Catalyst Grant Scheme.

The research team will partner with children and teenagers with JIA, as well as their caregivers and physiotherapists who treat children with the condition, to co-design the new intervention.

A series of workshops with researchers and the JIA community will help bring the outcomes to life, which may include videos, workbooks, telehealth sessions or other resources.

About 30,000 Australian children and youth live with JIA, a debilitating condition that causes joint pain and inflammation in the hands, ankles, elbows and wrists. Children with JIA face many challenges due to their condition, leading them to miss out on school and participate less in sport, leisure and other activities with their peers.

Lead researcher Dr Sarah Wallwork says another main challenge for JIA sufferers (or patients, as preferred) is that their pain is often disbelieved (i.e., invalidated) by those around them, which can have a significant impact on their mental health.

Dr Sarah Wallwork says the VITAL project will ensure that children and teens with JIA feel their JIA-related experiences are believed and acknowledged, receive developmentally appropriate pain science education to help them better understand their pain system, and receive better support to increase their movement and activity through everyday enjoyable tasks.

“We hope the creation of this intervention will equip young people with JIA and their families with the support, knowledge, skills and resources to be able to self-manage their condition over the longer-term,” she says. Newswise/SP