This project explored patient perspectives on the impacts of appearance and weight changes due to long-term steroid use.
This was a collaborative project between the RECORDER team and the Steroid PRO project team led by Dr Jo Robson at UWE Bristol and colleagues across the UK, USA and Australia.
Background
Many patients with rheumatic conditions need systemic glucocorticoids (steroids) even though there are known side effects. A key concern for patients is weight gain, alongside several other appearance changes.
In a previous study, Jo Robson’s team had interviewed 60 patients with various rheumatic conditions about the impacts of steroids on their lives. The results were used to develop a patient-reported outcome measure (the ‘Steroid PRO’). As the interviews contained such rich insights, we conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of the transcripts with a specific focus on the impacts of appearance changes.
Aims
The aim of this project was to understand the impacts of appearance and weight changes due to taking glucocorticoids (steroids) for a chronic rheumatic condition.
Publications
Lax SJ, Dures E, Bridgewater S, Silverthorne CA, Lowndes V, Richards P, Ferreira A, Shepherd MA, Dawson J, Hill C, Goodman S, Mackie SL, Ndosi M, Pearce FA, Robson JC, Patient perspectives on the impact of appearance and weight changes attributed to systemic glucocorticoid treatment of rheumatic diseases, Rheumatology, 2025;, keaf121, https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keaf121
Plain language summary on the Vasculitis UK website
Postcard
Start date: May 2023
Funder: Various