Support for the Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) as part of the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology

Disease - Rheumatoid arthritis

Lead applicant - Professor Alexander MacGregor

Organisation - University of East Anglia

Type of grant - Clinical Studies

Status of grant - Active

Amount of the original award - £134,215.85

Start date - 1 March 2016

Reference - 21229

Public Summary

What are the aims of this research?

The Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) aims to understand the genetic basis of rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis and the economic impact of inflammatory arthritis

Why is this research important?

The Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) is the UK’s only long term study of early inflammatory arthritis. The register started recruiting people with inflammatory arthritis in 1989 and has been key in understanding the rates of occurrence of inflammatory arthritis and the genetic and environmental risk factors determining outcomes of inflammatory arthritis.

The register will continue to recruit patients with inflammatory arthritis up until 2018 with up to 120 patients recruited each year. Patients will continue to be assessed over this time at varying intervals to follow their progress which is important to understand the outcomes, impact and causes of the condition.

How will the findings benefit patients?

Better understanding inflammatory arthritis is key to knowing the causes of the condition and being able to predict people who are most at risk. It also enables the development of new treatments and new targets for treatment which will lead to drugs which have maximum benefit for patients.