# Peer Approaches to Lupus Self-Management (PALS)

> **NIH NIH R01** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2022 · $45,650

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The goal of the proposed project is to test an innovative, manualized peer mentorship program for African
American women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The Peer Approaches to Lupus Self-
management (PALS) study is designed to provide modeling and reinforcement by peers (mentors) to other
African American women with SLE (mentees) to encourage them to engage in activities that promote disease
self-management. This study builds on three decades of work conducted in the field of arthritis self-
management but differs in that the intervention mode (peer mentoring), the disease (SLE), and the study
population (African Americans) are unstudied or understudied. Through a randomized, controlled design, we
will assess the efficacy and mechanism(s) of this intervention on self-management and health related quality of
life (HRQOL). This program has three specific aims. The first aim seeks to determine the efficacy of a peer
mentorship intervention in African American women with SLE on disease self-management and HRQOL. The
second aim is to determine the impact of a peer mentorship intervention on patient-reported and clinical
indicators of disease activity. The third aim is to determine the cost effectiveness of a peer mentorship
intervention on disease self-management, disease activity, and HRQOL, in African American women with SLE.
An exploratory aim will be to determine the role of mediators and moderators of a peer mentorship intervention
on disease activity and HRQOL outcomes in African American women with SLE, to include disease self-
management, depression, trust, and social support. The immediate goal of proposed work is to determine the
efficacy of the program in a randomized design. The long-term goal is to disseminate this potentially cost-
effective intervention in diverse clinical and community settings in an effort to improve disease outcomes in
African American women with SLE and reduce morbidity and mortality in this high risk group. This effort could
result in a model for other programs that aim to improve disease self-management, disease activity, and
HRQOL in African American women suffering from chronic illness.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10426247
- **Project number:** 5R01NR017892-05
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Edith Marie Williams
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $45,650
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-26 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10426247

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10426247, Peer Approaches to Lupus Self-Management (PALS) (5R01NR017892-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-10 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10426247. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*