Validating the Spider

STUDY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED

Validating the Spider – a new screening tool for adolescents with symptomatic hypermobility

Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health - Jane Simmonds and Ellen Ewer

WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ABOUT?

A group of researchers have designed a new questionnaire ‘The Spider’, which looks at the impact that symptomatic hypermobility has on an individual. After completing the questionnaire, scores are plotted onto a ‘Spider’s web’ to make it easy to see which symptoms impact an individual the most. We hope this tool 

will assess many of the symptoms which may be affecting people with symptomatic hypermobility, to ensure your care considers all of these important aspects. Before we can use this tool routinely, we need to make sure it 

measures what it is supposed to.

HOW CAN I HELP?

We will ask you to complete a questionnaire which will ask you about your digestion, bladder and bowel, dizziness and heart concerns and symptoms like joints popping in and out of place. You have the option to do the questionnaire all in one go, or save your answers and come back to it another time. 

CAN YOU HELP?

We are looking for:

Participants aged 13 to 18:

• With symptomatic hypermobility (including hypermobility spectrum disorder and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) without other diagnoses like inflammatory arthritis or neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy and serious heart conditions

• But also without symptomatic hypermobility (your siblings or friends)

• Who can understand and communicate in English 

Contact details:

Ellen Ewer: ellen.ewer.20@alumni.ucl.ac.uk

Jane Simmonds: jane.simmonds@ucl.ac.uk

Ethics approval granted by UCL REC. 

Project ID: 19629/001

An example of the Spider graph (Image)