Funder: National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) £29, 864; and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust £55,657

Start date: 01/10/2016. End date: 30/09/2019

PI: Kirstie Haywood.

Collaborators: Jon Packham (Staffordshire Rheumatology Centre); Sarah Hewlett (Bristol), Paul Creamer (Bristol), Jane Martindale (Wrightington), Ade Adebajo (Sheffield), George Strickland (PPI; Wrightington) and Jean Thompson (PPI; Wrightington).

Description: The programme will have four core workstreams:

1) A systematic review of PROM-based fatigue assessment;

2) A 2-phase qualitative study involving patient interviews and focus groups with patients and health professionals;

3) informed by international best practice, a 3-phase, patient-driven development of a multi-item, AS-fatigue specific PROM; and

4) a comparative psychometric evaluation of the new AS-fatigue PROM in a UK-cohort.

Progress: the researcher (full-time PhD student) has been appointed and jointed the team 01/10/15.