FOREUM: Uncovering musculoskeletal pain susceptibility profiles since childhood by bringing together population and clinical cohorts

Raquel Lucas

Principal Investigator

Integrated Member (PhD)

Type of project:

International

Reference:

1016807

Participating institutions:

Foundation for Research in Rheumatology

Sources of financing:

Foundation for Research in Rheumatology

Start date:

01/01/2021

(Predicted) End date:

31/01/2024

Total budget:

200,000.00 €

Research line:

L1 - Life Course Research and Healthy Ageing

Research lab:

Population Design of Musculoskeletal Health and Disease

Summary:

This study bridges population-based and clinical cohorts to investigate early markers of adverse musculoskeletal pain trajectories. The project examines the ways that children and their caregivers use to describe the child’s pain experience, and to assesses which early features are the most useful to predict whether children are going to develop later musculoskeletal pain, including in the absence of a medical condition that can biologically account for pain.

Objectives:

  • to identify accurate predictors of non-specific musculoskeletal pain at age 16 years, among a wide set of pain-related traits collected since birth;
  • to assess whether experimental pain response is altered before the onset of non-specific musculoskeletal pain;
  • to develop an interactive graphical tool to quantify the long-term explicit memory of pain, and to compare the experiences described by adolescents with non-specific musculoskeletal pain to those of adolescents with diagnosed juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Research Team