Juvenile Arthritis and Mental Health (JAMH) Study
Research in the mental health of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is growing, but gaps in our understanding remain. This study will address these gaps by:
- studying how the mental health of children with JIA changes and identify which children experience the largest changes over time
- describing what mental health means to caregivers and children with JIA, and how do they know when their mental health changes
- testing if the Emotional Behavioural Scales (EBS) can be used to accurately measure mental health in childhood JIA
Caregivers and children (10-16 years) diagnosed with JIA will be recruited from outpatient clinics at McMaster and Alberta Children’s Hospitals.
Understanding the impact of having JIA on mental health will allow us to develop individualized mental health services and supports. If the EBS is found to be accurate, it will provide clinicians with a measure which can be used to assess changes to mental health and routinely be incorporated into national and international registries.
This study is funded by Brain Canada and Cassie + Friends.