Current Research

On May 31 and June 1, 2018, INAR held an international symposium funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to discuss the issue of arthritis in immigrant and low- and middle-income populations. Key messages from the meeting:

• Lack of information available about living with arthritis in these populations
• Recognition of potential barriers to information as well as coping, support and care resources in these populations
• Few resources have been dedicated to this issue in these populations
• Need to promote and foster work in this area

Next Steps

We are currently reaching out to immigrant communities. We wish to learn about the experiences of immigrants with arthritis and/or their caregivers to see how we can improve quality of life in these communities.

Participate

We want to hear from immigrants (18 years or older) who have arthritis or their caregivers living in Canada.

If you wish to participate or learn more about this research, we invite you contact us.

We will ask you to talk about how you manage your disease, what challenges you face and what kind of support you have or need. We will also ask you to fill out a consent form and a short form that asks your age, gender and ethnicity. We will use this data to describe those who participated (as a group, not individuals). The interview should take about 1 hour (60 minutes). Participation is completely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time). Findings will be shared as short reports, articles and conference presentations. We will also share our findings with different groups (e.g. The Arthritis Society, Alberta Health Services) and interested participants.

The plan for this study has been reviewed by a Research Ethics Board at the University of Alberta. If you have questions about your rights or how research should be conducted, you can call (780) 492-2615. This office is independent of the researchers.