Understanding pathways to wellbeing in childhood and adolescent arthritis: Psychological and Physical Outcomes for children and young people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

The proposed PhD will investigate outcomes for those with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (or JIA), the name given to a group of long-term inflammatory musculoskeletal conditions which can affect children and young people. JIA is a complex condition with a range of subtypes and outcome is known to vary both within and between these subtypes.
This research is needed to better understand the condition, and how different factors affect or influence the experiences of children and young people with JIA throughout the disease course, which for many extends into adulthood.

The Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study is a national study based at the University of Manchester. It is one of the largest cohort studies of outcomes in JIA in the world and is led by one of the supervisors, Professor Wendy Thomson.
The Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study, which began in 2001, has collected longitudinal data from over 1700 individuals with JIA including clinical, psychological, social, genetic and demographic information.

The successful candidate will undertake extensive analysis of these data sets to investigate how psychological, clinical, biological and demographic factors influence a range of important patient-reported and clinical outcomes in those with JIA. The candidate will have some choice about which areas they would like to focus on based on their interests, skills and experience. In addition, we engage with a range of patient representative groups, including those run by young people and parents of those with JIA. These groups help us develop research questions which address their priorities.
The findings from this study are likely to inform future recommendations for intervention and treatment.

The successful candidate will be joining an interdisciplinary team including psychologists, geneticists, clinicians, statisticians, and other researchers in the field with opportunities to collaborate with other experts through existing links and conference attendance.

Applicants are expected to hold a minimum upper second class undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in the areas of psychology, statistics, bioscience, medicine or in a health-related area.

Applicants are expected to hold, or about to obtain, a Masters degree in a relevant subject in which there was a significant component of quantitative statistical analysis training or to have equivalent level research experience in health-related research.