At the time of receiving a<unk>  diagnosis, children and their families often have many questions regarding prognosis. Recent therapeutic advances in the management of<unk>  have made inactive disease and clinical remission achievable goals for the majority of children with access to modern treatments. Clinical remission can be defined as the absence of signs and symptoms of inflammatory disease activity, including extra-articular manifestations of the disease. Differentiating subtypes of<unk>  helps to target treatment and leads to more positive outcomes, however subtype is not the only predictor of<unk>  outcome. Poor prognostic factors include arthritis of the hip, cervical spine, ankles or wrists; prolonged elevation of inflammatory markers; and radiographic evidence of joint damage including erosions or joint space narrowing. Patients with RF-positive polyarthritis often have worse outcomes associated with more aggressive disease. Despite this, the probability of this subgroup achieving inactive disease at least once within five years was shown to be 90% in a large Canadian study. Research is currently being undertaken into clinical prediction models to allow earlier identification of children who are likely to have a worse prognosis. Compliance with therapy, especially medication, has a positive correlation with disease outcome. Research into specific<unk>  biomarkers is currently underway, with the goal of forming more personalized treatment plans, reducing medication side effects and improving remission rates. Current areas of investigation include clinical, protein, genetic and radiological markers, amongst others. Children with<unk>  demonstrate similar levels of depression and anxiety to children with other chronic diseases; however, causality has not been established. The unpredictable and undulating course of<unk>  disease activity and the need for ongoing procedural interventions may contribute. It has been previously suggested that children with<unk>  are at an increased risk of malignancies when being treated with anti-TNF therapy. More recent data has not confirmed this association: it is thought that the disease itself is linked with a slightly higher background risk of malignancy. Ongoing data analysis on large patient populations continues in this area.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Kawasaki disease
Systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Reactive arthritis
Psoriatic arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Relapsing polychondritis
Inflammatory arthritis