Grant: Team Grant: Physical Activity, Mobility and Health (LOI)

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is one of the most common chronic disabling conditions of childhood and it affects approximately 10,000 Canadian children at any given time. Up to 60% of these children are likely to suffer persistently active disease and damage from JIA into adulthood. JIA may result in permanent disability, impaired functional status, and poor quality of life, even during childhood. Therefore, children with JIA are less physically active and less physically fit than their healthy peers and thus lack the potential protective benefits afforded by physical activity (PA). Strategies need to be developed to increase PA in this vulnerable population. The current proposal builds on the success of a CIHR New Emerging Team whose study - Research on Arthritis in Canadian Children emphasizing Outcomes (ReACCh Out) - entails the long-term follow up of a cohort of new-onset JIA patients (>1,200 patients) entered from every pediatric rheumatology centre in Canada to ascertain their ultimate outcome in terms of function, disability and health-related quality of life. As the ReACCh Out research team has evolved, we have recognized the need to expand our research agenda with a focus on the central role of PA as a major determinant of outcomes in JIA. This study will expand on the existing ReACCh Out cohort, and will include similar outcomes data, but will focus on issues related to PA, and thus necessitates expansion of the team to include experts in exercise, PA and medical imaging. The goal of this research program is to study the influence of PA on disease outcomes in JIA. Additionally, we will study the biologic processes affecting the joints in JIA and determine the extent to which these processes might also be influenced by PA. This new knowledge will enable the rational design and implementation of safe physical activity treatment regimens in JIA that will contribute to healthy active living and will result in the prevention of joint damage.