A study, published in Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology, examined the effectiveness of three different inflammatory bowel disease evidence-based care pathways.
Jana Langbrandtner, PhD, of the Germany-based University of Luebeck, and colleagues analyzed 349 patients — 189 in the intervention group, 160 in the control. They examined the intervention group's response to one of three pathways:
1. A questionnaire analyzing 22 somatic and psychosocial problems with individual care recommendations.
2. A two-day patient education program.
3. An invitation to their gastroenterologist to participate in an interdisciplinary case conference.
The control group received standard care.
Researchers followed up at 6 months and 12 months, asking participants to complete questionnaires. Researchers measured quality of life, social participation and self-management skills.
Here's what they found:
1. Improvement in health-related quality of life and social participation was similar.
2. The intervention group had improved self-management skills and often followed steroid-free medication regimes.
Researchers concluded, "In a real-world clinical context, patient activation procedure combined with patient education and case conferences was less effective than expected. The observed beneficial effects, however, encourage the evaluation of more intensive and addressee-centered activities."