Employment and Arthritis: Making it Work

Summary

The investigators plan to conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and the cost effectiveness of an on-line eLearning program (entitled Employment and Arthritis: Making it Work) designed to help people with inflammatory arthritis stay employed. The program also includes assessments with 1) an occupational therapist, and 2) a vocational rehabilitation counsellor at the end of the program to help participants identify and obtain necessary changes at work. People from three provinces will be recruited from collaborators' patient and program recipient lists. The study group will receive the program intervention and the control group will receive "usual care" and printed educational material. All participants will be followed for five years. The effectiveness of the program at improving at work productivity and reducing work cessation will be evaluated compared to a control group receiving printed material on employment and arthritis.

Conditions

• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Ankylosing Spondylitis
• Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic
• Psoriatic Arthritis
• Other Connective Tissue Diseases
• Spondylarthropathy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Employment and Arthritis: Making it Work

A ten week on-line eLearning program designed to help people with inflammatory arthritis stay employed. The program consists of 1) 5 interactive web-based eLearning modules that participants will complete individually in between the weekly group sessions, 2) 5 weekly group sessions conducted as virtual real-time web-based group meetings led by a trained facilitator, 3) asynchronous communications such as a message board to facilitate additional interactions among participants, 4) consultations with an occupational therapist (in-person)for an ergonomic assessment, and a vocational rehabilitation counsellor (on-line consultation using web technology) for job retention vocational counselling.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Toronto

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Calgary

  collaborator OTHER

• Simon Fraser University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of British Columbia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Diane Lacaille, MD, FRCPC, MHSc · University of British Columbia and Arthritis Research Centre

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

59 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-06-30

Primary Completion

2025-03-31

Completion

2027-05-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations