Research award to support physical activity in arthritis

Linda Li, University of BC (UBC), Mary Pack Arthritis Program (MPAP) has received news from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) that her application ‘Supporting Physical activity & Reducing sedentary behaviour in Arthritis (SuPRA)’ has been funded for slightly more than $200,000 over two years.  Other investigators on the team include: Greg Noonan and Paul Adam from Mary Pack Arthritis Program.

Being active is good and sitting too much bad for health, especially for people with arthritis. However, more than half of people with knee osteoarthritis are sedentary even when symptoms are controlled. SuPRA will test a physical activity coaching model to increase activity and reduce sitting time. This model includes a brief education session on exercise, telephone/e-mail coaching by a physiotherapist, and the use of Fitbit Flex (a wireless physical activity tracking device). To motivate the individual, we will develop a new Fitbit-compatible communication and social network application that can track osteoarthritis symptoms and share these with the physiotherapist for activity advice. People can also form virtual activity groups to share osteoarthritis exercise tips and encourage each other to be active.

But, the funding week for Linda did not end there.  Linda Li along with Greg Noonan, and others received a grant from the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute for $50,000 to initiate a project ‘Monitor OA’.  It will improve physical activity using an online monitoring tool and assist this new research thrust to develop a new model of care for knee OA.