Jointstrong Intervention for Juvenile Arthritis

If your child is eligible and decides to participate in this study, this participation will last approximately eight weeks. Please refer to the table at the end of this consent form.

Your child's participation in this study will involve the completion of daily questionnaires during a one-week baseline period and a one-week follow-up period. These questionnaires will contain various questions about your child's arthritis and his/her ability to do various activities. The questionnaires will take approximately 15-30 minutes each week to complete.

Your child will be randomly assigned to complete one of two CD-ROM programs. One of the CD-ROM programs is a "control" program that contains educational information about arthritis and medical treatments and the other is the "treatment" program and contains the same educational information as the control program plus information on behavioral strategies for controlling symptoms of arthritis. Your child's participation in this study will involve working through one of these CD-ROM programs over a one-month period. Your child will also continue to receive medical treatment from the rheumatologist treating your child for arthritis. The CD-ROM programs involve working through developmentally appropriate lessons on the nature of arthritis and how to treat it. The CD-ROM programs are divided into weekly "modules" and are designed to be completed within four weeks. Lessons take an average of 15 minutes to complete (plus "homework"), and there is an average of 4 lessons to complete each week.

Your participation in this study will involve the completion of questionnaires and helping your child understand any parts of the study that he or she does not understand.