Hello everyone!
Scott has so very generously given me permission to post here about my research project in order to get the word out.
My name is Jennifer Voth and I’m a PhD student in Psychology at the University of Windsor located in Ontario, Canada.
Let me start off by saying that I have loved and lost many family and friends who live with chronic pain, therefore this is something that is near and dear to my heart. When I started my studies in health psychology, I quickly realized that there is very little research about the psychological and social impact of living with systemic lupus erythematosus or other inflammatory forms of arthritis, and how this affects your daily life quality. Most research just focuses on symptoms and pain meds, without really attempting to understand what it is like, the experience of living with chronic pain. I think that this type of quality of life research is desperately needed and should be highlighted more often in the health community. One small step that I’m taking is with my thesis research, which is examining the psychological, social and physical experience of living with SLE, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis and gout.
I’m kindly asking anyone who has SLE (or RA, AS or Gout) to participate in my study. It’s a survey study will take approximately 25 mins to complete (you may save your responses and resume as many times as you wish) and you will be eligible to win one of ten $10USD (or equivalent, depending on where you live) gift cards to your choice of Amazon, Starbucks or Walmart. The survey can be done from any computer, and as long as you have SLE, AS, RA, or Gout, you are eligible to participate. All responses will be kept confidential and the study has been approved by the University of Windsor Research Ethics Board (REB# 12-012).
Then, over the course of the next five months, I will be checking in with each person monthly and asking some questions about what it has been like to manage your health in the last month. This way, I can get a 6 month snapshot of your daily and monthly experience in order to understand what does and doesn't work for you in terms of managing your health, which can inform ways to enhance quality of life for you and other living with your condition. These check ins will only take about 10 mins of your time and there will be two more draws during this time - one for $25 giftcards and one for $50 giftcards.
If you are interested, please visit
http://uwindsor.fluidsurveys.com/s/inflammatory-arthritis/
OR contact Jennifer at ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Your help is tremendously appreciated!
take good care,
Jennifer