Approved research

Role of diet in the aetiology of ankylosing spondylitis (AS)

Lay summary

We propose to investigate the relationship between diet and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). There is limited current information and it would be too costly to undertake a large-scale study specifically to investigate this topic. The proposed project will test the advice available through an Arthritis Research UK booklet on ?Diet and Arthritis?. Specifically we will assess to what extent patients with AS are following these (in comparison to those without AS) with respect to diet (eg intake of fruit, vegetables and oily fish) and exercise, and whether there is any difference between patients with different levels of disease severity. This proposal is consistent with UK Biobank's mission of health-related research in the public interest. Our project will help to further understand the aetiology of AS and this will translate into better prevention policies, improved diagnosis and prognosis. We propose to conduct a case-control study to investigate whether persons who self-report AS and are HLA-B27 positive have different diets than those who do not report AS. We also propose case-case study to investigate whether amongst persons reporting AS and HLAB-27 positive, diet differs between persons with different levels of disease severity as assessed by pain From our previous projects within UK Biobank we found that there are 1,362 participants with self-reported AS. Assuming that 80% are HLA-B27 positive, there will be 1,089 cases and 10,890 controls.