Marrie RA¹, Walker JR², Graff LA², Patten SB³, Bolton JM⁴, Marriott JJ⁵, Fisk JD⁶, Hitchon C⁵, Peschken C⁵, Bernstein CN⁵; CIHR Team in Defining the Burden and Managing the Effects of Immune-mediated Inflammatory Disease. Patient Educ Couns. 2019 Apr 6. pii: S0738-3991(19)30132-6. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2019.04.007. [Epub ahead of print]

Author information

1 Department of Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Electronic address: rmarrie@hsc.mb.ca.

2 Department of Clinical Health Psychology, Max Rady College of Medicine Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

3 Departments of Community Health Sciences & Psychiatry, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.

4 Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, Max Rady College of Medicine Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

5 Department of Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

6 Nova Scotia Health Authority, Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, and Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the information needs of persons with any of three immune-mediated inflammatorydiseases (multiple sclerosis [MS], inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] and rheumatoid arthritis [RA]) regarding depression, as a first step toward developing patient-relevant information resources, ultimately to facilitate self-management and appropriate care. We also compared information needs across genders.

METHODS: We surveyed participants with MS, IBD and RA regarding depression-related information needs including types of treatments, effectiveness, risks, benefits, and perceived helpfulness of treatments. We compared responses between groups using multivariate regression.

RESULTS: 328 participants provided complete responses (MS: 141, IBD: 114, RA: 73). Most of the topics queried were perceived as very important, and similarly important for all groups. Women placed higher importance than men on most topics. The most popular formats for receiving information were discussion with a counselor (very preferred: 67.4%) and written information (very preferred: 65.5%); this did not differ between groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Persons affected by MS, IBD and RA are interested in receiving information about multiple topics related to depression treatment, from multiple sources. Women desire more information than men.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: These findings can be used to design information resources to meet information needs regarding depression in MS, IBD and RA.