The role of partner support in chronic disease outcomes

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Project background In the UK, patient care and disease management are typically treated as individual concerns rather than recognising that disease management is a social process. This project offers an exciting opportunity to develop and test a comprehensive account of how partner interactions impact chronic disease, with immediate relevance to chronic disease management and care of arthritis patients. Patient reported outcomes are important measures in management of inflammatory arthritis, but they are inherently subjective, and may be influenced by social factors overlooked in clinical contexts (e.g., social support). There is often a large discordance between patient and physician global assessments of disease activity in inflammatory arthritis, which impacts treatment decisions, patient satisfaction and compliance. An overreliance on physiological predictors of patient global assessments means that important social information (e.g., interactions with partners) which may contribute to patient-physician discordance have been overlooked. Shifting to a bio-psycho-social model approach which includes understanding the impact of social contexts should contribute to a better disease management.Project aims and objectivesThis exciting PhD project aims to examine how daily interactions between partners influence patient-reported disease outcomes and may account for discrepancies between patient and physician global assessments of disease activity in inflammatory arthritis. Specific objectives include:1. Synthesizing the current evidence regarding associations between partner support and patient reported outcomes among arthritis patients.2. Examining daily associations between partner interactions and patient reported outcomes. 3. Examining longitudinal associations between daily partner interactions and patient reported disease outcomes, and the over-time patient-physician discordance on global assessments. 4. Identifying the similarities and differences in how partner interactions patient-physician assessments across different types of inflammatory arthritis.5. Piloting possible psycho-social interventions to improve patient reported disease outcomes.