HSP Falls Study Participation

Here is another HSP research study that you can take part in.

Researchers at Plymouth University (in the UK) are studying more about how many people with HSP fall and what causes the fall. Understanding more about falls will help to raise the awareness of the condition with other healthcare professionals, determine what interventions may be useful and drive future research.

There is an initial questionnaire gathering information about participants and any falls that they may have had in the last three months. The second part of the study records any falls over a three month period. The study is titled "Falls in Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis: An Observational study of falls characteristics and predictors of falls and long lies" They define a long lie as when someone is unable to get up off the floor for an hour or more.

The study aims to survey as many people with Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis whether or not they commonly fall. It aims to identify how frequently people with Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis fall and to describe the characteristics of falls such as where people fall and what were they doing at the time. The survey will also assess whether there is a relationship between people’s reported symptoms, such as weakness, muscle stiffness and fatigue and the presence or absence of falls.

You can take part in the study if you have a diagnosis of HSP.

After you sign up you will complete a questionnaire about factors such as your age, diagnosis and family history, previous falls as well as your current symptoms and their perceived severity. Once you return these forms you will be sent diary packs. These will be used to indicate your falls and their characteristics on a daily basis. The falls diaries will ask about how you fell, what you were doing at the time and the perceived cause of the fall. Every 2 weeks you will need to return the falls diary sheets or an indication that you have not fallen in that period. We will collect the falls diary over a 3 month period.

The study is being completed by the researcher as part of her Master’s degree in Neurological Rehabilitation at Plymouth University and results will therefore be written up to form their thesis. The results of this study aim to be published in 2018 and presented at relevant national and local conferences. They will also present the results at UK HSP support group meetings.

To take part, the full details are right at the end of the March 2017 UK HSP support group newsletter: http://hspgroup.org/images/Newslink/March2017.pdf

I have signed up for this study, even though I havent had any falls as a result of my HSP. I queried if my no-falls data would be beneficial before signing up. The initial questionnaire is actually 7 short questionnaires covering different aspects. It didnt take me long to fill those in, and I will be using some of these questions in one of my autumn surveys!