Arthritis is a chronic disease that is far more prevalent among females than among males. Not just a disease affecting older people, arthritis often strikes females during their reproductive years. Data access has been approved for a study to generate comprehensive and up-to-date evidence on the impacts of arthritis medications on maternal, fetal/neonatal and child health.
The study, funded by the Arthritis Society of Canada, is being lead by Mary De Vera, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
“Our first objective is to evaluate patterns of perinatal arthritis medication use among female patients with rheumatic diseases,” says Professor De Vera. “Secondly, we will evaluate perinatal impacts of specific arthritis medications including conventional synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, both biologic originator and biosimilar disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and targeted synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, on maternal outcomes, fetal/neonatal outcomes, and childhood outcomes.”
The project builds on a previous De Vera study. PopData will replicate the same data linkage process creating a base ‘maternal cohort’ and a corresponding ‘children cohort’ of child/dren born to females in the maternal cohort. Data sets from the BC Ministry of Health will be linked to data from Perinatal Services BC, the Human Early Learning Partnership, and Statistics Canada for the project.
Knowledge translation plans include publications in peer-reviewed journals in rheumatology, obstetrics and gynecology, and general medical journals. The research team also plan to present at scientific conferences including those in rheumatology and epidemiology/health services research, and present to patients through webinars including those from The Arthritis Society and Arthritis Research Canada.
