Additionally, RA Choice received positive feedback from participating physicians. Seventy-eight percent reported that the decision aid was moderately to greatly helpful in their discussions of RA medications with patients. “Nearly 90% of clinicians predicted that the decision aid would have a positive impact on patient knowledge about medication choices,” write the authors.
Overall, both intervention groups, including patients who changed medication, had a reduction in mean disease activity according to the Clinical Disease Activity Index. But this change was not statistically significant at three months.
The authors conclude, “Adherence and other measures were imprecisely estimated in this pilot, which, along with our findings of acceptability and promising estimates of impact on disease activity, support the conduct of a large, multi-center trial to precisely estimate the effectiveness of RA Choice.”
Barton JL, Trupin L, Schillinger D, et al. Use of low-literacy decision aid to enhance knowledge and reduce decisional conflict among a diverse population of adults with rheumatoid arthritis: Results of a pilot study. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2015 Nov 25. doi: 10.1002/acr.22801. [Epub ahead of print]
