Alisha - Interview 51

Age at interview: 13

Age at diagnosis: 3

Brief Outline: Alisha is taking part in a Cohort Study on children and young people with arthritis that involves completing a self-administered questionnaire at her regular clinic appointments.

Background: Alisha is 13 years of age, White British, lives at home with her parents and siblings and attends a local school. Alisha was diagnosed with arthritis at the age of 3 years.

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Alisha aged 13 years was diagnosed with arthritis at the age of 3. She takes Etanercept injections to help her arthritis as previous medications including methotrexate tablets made her feel poorly and she didn’t like the methotrexate injections as it stung afterwards. She says that having arthritis makes her feel different because she is unable to do some things like dance that others can do.

She is taking part in a Cohort Study on people with arthritis although she doesn’t remember having any information. A cohort study is a study of people who have a certain condition or receive a particular treatment and are followed over time. They may be compared with another group who are not affected by the condition. When she attends the hospital to collect her medication she also completes a questionnaire that asks questions on opening bottles, turning a tap on and off, getting into bed, and how much pain she has experienced during the past week.
 

Alisha said that the questionnaire on arthritis asks about daily activities like opening a bottle and turning the tap on and off and how much pain you experience.

They give me like a sheet that, you know, it’s like can I open like a bottle, the lid off a bottle, can I turn the tap on can I get in bed like stuff like that and you’ve got to tick like yes, no and then at the end of the sheet it will say how much pain have you been in this month or how much pain have you been in this week and you just fill that in.

 

How do you, how do they measure the pain how, is it a number you have to?

 

It’s like a scale, it’s like one of those grid things and it says zero and 100 and you just mark which part on the scale.