Educational needs of patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases attending a large health facility in Austria

Abstract

Introduction Patient education is an important part of the management of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. Given that patients with diverse diseases do not have the same needs, it is crucial to assess the educational requirements of targeted groups to provide tailored educational interventions. The aim of our study was to assess educational needs of a large cohort of patients with different rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases attending a health facility in Austria. Methods We assessed educational needs, via an online survey of patients with fibromyalgia (FMS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) recruited from an Austrian health‐care facility, using the Austrian version of the Educational Needs Assessment Tool (OENAT). Results For our sample of 603 patients, AS (62%), RA (15%), and FMS (24%), there were no educational need differences for the domains of movements, disease process, and self‐help measures. Patients with FMS had less need for pain management education and greater need for education about feelings, than other disease groups. Patients with RA had a greater need for education related to treatments than other groups, and patients with AS had a greater need for treatment education than patients with FMS. Patients with AS reported greater need for support system education than other patient groups. Conclusion Educational needs vary by disease groups, suggesting that health‐care professionals should assess disease‐specific needs for education to provide optimal assistance in disease management for patients.

A longitudinal study of educational needs among patients with inflammatory arthritis

“…To the best of our knowledge, no other studies on patient education in the field of rheumatology have investigated whether patients' educational needs change over time. Other studies have mainly focused on whether patients have different needs depended on diagnosis (Hirsch et al, 2020), disease activity or demographic characteristics (Bremander et al, 2018;Haglund et al, 2017). This study did not detect any associations between patients' total educational needs and diagnosis, but other studies have shown that patients with Spondyloarthritis report higher needs for education on pain and movement (Bremander et al, 2018), patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis want more education on treatments, and patients with fibromyalgia have higher needs for education about feelings (Hirsch et al, 2020).…”

“…Other studies have mainly focused on whether patients have different needs depended on diagnosis (Hirsch et al, 2020), disease activity or demographic characteristics (Bremander et al, 2018;Haglund et al, 2017). This study did not detect any associations between patients' total educational needs and diagnosis, but other studies have shown that patients with Spondyloarthritis report higher needs for education on pain and movement (Bremander et al, 2018), patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis want more education on treatments, and patients with fibromyalgia have higher needs for education about feelings (Hirsch et al, 2020). We did not investigate associations between diagnoses and different educational domains, but we found that females have larger total educational needs than men, which was supported by the systemic review by Connelly and co-workers (Connelly et al, 2018).…”

“…Patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis have also different educational needs depended on their rheumatic diagnosis (Hirsch et al, 2020), gender, age (Dragoi et al, 2013;Kars Fertelli, 2019;Sierakowska et al, 2016), educational background and disease duration (Dragoi et al, 2013;Kars Fertelli, 2019).…”

Educational needs and preferences of adult patients with acute or chronic pain: a mixed methods systematic review protocol

“…Some systematic reviews have examined the effect of educational interventions on patients’ pain experience in various acute and chronic pain conditions (eg, post-surgery, musculoskeletal pain, whiplash injuries, cancer) 7–10 . These reviews have either shown no benefit or a modest effect on pain and associated disabilities.…”

Patient educational needs and challenges in psoriatic arthritis

“…The ENAT is a self-administered questionnaire that can also be used by researchers to determine the educational needs of the patient at the time of administration. In an online survey of educational needs of patients with various rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), Hirsch et al identified that the educational needs of patients vary by disease groups and that healthcare professionals need to assess disease-specific needs for education in order to achieve high quality of care [13].…”