MSU Extension has teamed up with Dr. Erik Adams, a researcher at MSU as well as a physician who is a specialist in musculoskeletal medicine, to see if we can create better treatment strategies for osteoarthritis.
Our goal in osteoarthritis treatment should not just be pain relief, which is of course important, but also making sure you are able to work and keep your agricultural operation productive. This starts with understanding the issue better, which is why we have developed a survey that we are deploying in ten Montana counties, including Valley County. This survey seeks to determine how prevalent arthritis, and especially osteoarthritis, is in our ranching and farming community, and to also assess its effect on the economic health of Montana ranches and farms.
This survey is available in both paper form or online for you to complete from home. If you would like to share your experiences (either ranching or farming with osteoarthritis or lack of arthritis symptoms) with the research team, we ask you to consider filling one out. Determining that there is a need for arthritis treatment among farm and ranch producers is the first step in launching this program. The next step will involve selecting volunteer participants who will actually receive the research treatment. All of your responses are confidential, and you will sent a thank you gift of a $15 Amazon card for your time. It should take you about 15 minutes. Please call or stop by the Valley County Extension office (228-6241) to request a paper survey or online at redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=3DCEK3A4389X.
What are we going to do with the results from these 10 Montana counties? Like any good research study, you have to show that there is a problem before anyone is willing to provide funding to address the problem, and we think that the survey data will accomplish that, if we have enough ranchers and farmers fill out the survey. Our ultimate goal will be to create a rural, mobile treatment method for osteoarthritis, but there are quite a few steps that need to be taken before this can become a reality. The survey is our first step, and we look forward to working with all of you to make this a reality.
Please call or stop by the Valley County Extension office (228-6241) to request a paper survey or online at redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=3DCEK3A4389X.
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