BU research to aid skin sufferers

5 August 2008

A UK study is being conducted into the way people living with the skin condition psoriasis care for themselves.

Experts from our School of Health & Social care are conducting a study into how the 3% of the UK’s population living with the skin disorder psoriasis self-manage the condition to improve their quality of life.

Funded with a £57,000 grant from The Psoriasis Association, the research is being led by Professor Steven Ersser, Director of our Centre for Wellbeing & Quality of Life (CeWQoL).

In recognition of the research, Research Fellow Fiona Cowdell, who is managing the study, has also been awarded £500 from the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network (UK DCTN) from its 2008 Nursing Prize.

The funds will enable Fiona to attend the British Dermatological Nursing Group Annual Conference and DCTN steering group, which includes dermatologists, dermatology nurses, health services researchers and patients, with the aim of developing nursing intervention practices.

Fiona explains: “Psoriasis is one of many chronic conditions which require self-management by patients to optimise quality of life. At present little is known about self-management in dermatology and the key areas of patient knowledge, skills and confidence, or the interventions that may be made by health professionals to support self-management.

“Working with colleagues in the Wessex Research Practices Collaboration (WRPC) and from Southampton University, our aim is to address this gap in knowledge by engaging with people with psoriasis to explore their current self-management practices and the specific factors that influence these.

“Using this data, together with existing literature and evidence, we will develop a nurse-led intervention that will be pilot tested in two GP practices within the WRPC.”

The Centre for Wellbeing & Quality of Life (CeWQoL), which will be officially launched in October, is a University-wide centre based in the School of Health & Social Care.

The Centre focuses on high-quality research, curricula and enterprise with the aim of improving health and social care practice; one of its key programmes of work is on health promotion.