Unique Chingford study gets major cash boost
A UNIQUE arthritis study involving more than 1,000 women from the Chingford area has received a major cash boost of £168,000 from a leading medical research charity.
The Chingford Study was set up11 years ago with the aim of identifying risk factors responsible for osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, two common and disabling conditions which affect millions of women in the UK.
Results from the study have played a major part in increasing knowledge of the two diseases. More than than 50 high quality research papers have been produced and presented at national and international meetings.
Now the Arthritis Research Campaign, which has pumped £500,000 into the study over the past decade, has announced further funding for another five years.
Dr Tim Spector, a consultant rheumatologist from St Thomas's Hospital in London, and one of the two doctors who set up the study, said: "What started as a small project on the menopause is now one of the longest running studies in the world."
His colleague Dr David Doyle from Whipps Cross Hospital added: "This is the only study of its kind in the UK offering long-term data on many factors associated with these two diseases. Our findings should become even more exciting and provide a real chance of new treatment and prevention, as the diseases studied become more common as the women get older."
The Chingford Study's most important findings include:
- That being overweight can contribute to the development of osteoarthritis.
- Hormone replacement therapy may protect against osteoarthritis.
- Having osteoarthritis may protect brittle-bones and age-related fracture.
- Obesity increases knee osteoarthritis by up to six fold.
Eighty-seven per cent of the women, aged between 45 and 64 at the time, recruited from a general practice in Chingford, are still involved in the study and attend clinic annually.
- A study by Dr Spector and colleagues published in The Lancet last month showed that post-menopausal women on the Chingford Study who took a cholesterol-lowering drug called statin had increased bone mineral density. Their findings may have major implications for the design of future treatments of the bone-thinning condition, osteoporosis.
