Drs. Jordan, Callahan, and Loeser awarded 5 year, $6.7 million grant from NIAMS for a pragmatic clinical trial of Weight loss and Exercise for Communities with Arthritis in North Carolina (“WE-CAN”).
NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases announced that UNC will be part of a multi-center U01 study including Wake Forest University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and will receive a 5 year, $6.7 million dollar grant, beginning September 1, 2015. The research study, “Weight loss and exercise for communities with arthritis in North Carolina (WE-CAN),” will implement and test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an evidence-based practical, diet-induced weight loss and exercise intervention that communities can implement to reduce pain and improve other clinical outcomes in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA).
Joanne M. Jordan, MD, MPH, Joseph P. Archie Eminent Professor of Medicine, Director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Chief, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at UNC is the Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Stephen Messier of Wake Forest University. The UNC site leader and Co-Investigator is Leigh Callahan, PhD, Mary Link Briggs Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Director of Epidemiology and Outcomes Research at the Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Director of the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance. Richard Loeser, MD, Herman and Louise Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of Basic and Translational Science at Thurston is co-investigator. Adjunct Professor of Medicine Kate T. Queen, MD, will lead the effort in Haywood County.
Drs. Jordan, Callahan, Loeser, and Queen will supervise and execute a diet and exercise intervention program, working closely with community partners in Johnston and Haywood counties. Their goals will be to determine whether an evidence-based diet and moderate exercise intervention can be implemented successfully in community-based settings in North Carolina with diverse residential (from urban to rural) and socioeconomic patterns to decrease knee pain in overweight and obese adults with knee OA, relative to a physician advice comparator group. The study will also ascertain the cost-effectiveness of the pragmatic community-based multimodal program, and conduct a budgetary impact analysis to facilitate implementation of such a program in community settings across the United States.