Interprofessional Education Session Boosts Arthritis Self-Efficacy

A 1-day inflammatory arthritis education session, delivered by an interprofessional arthritis care team, is feasible and replicable. Participation improves arthritis self-efficacy and other related outcomes in persons with arthritis.

Kennedy and colleagues conducted a pilot study to evaluate the Prescription for Education, or RxEd, program. A patient-based needs assessment and ongoing patient feedback before recruitment guided program development. Patients were eligible if they had a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease–related arthritis, or gout. A quasiexperimental design with waitlisted control crossover was used for evaluation. Self-report questionnaires served as the data collection tool. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) analysis was used to create a statistical model for the repeated measures.

For the primary outcome, the I group (immediate RxEd) showed improved arthritis self-efficacy after the intervention and sustained the effect at 1 year. The C group (RxEd 6 months later) showed no effect until crossover (immediate improvement, which diminished over 6 months). GEE analysis showed significant main effect, before to after the program, in both groups for the primary outcome and most secondary outcomes.

The authors noted that their results warrant further evaluation using more rigorous methods.