Decision making in drug treatment options for multiple sclerosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The effect of health literacy, knowledge of multiple sclerosis and numerical ability on understanding the risks and benefits of treatment for multiple sclerosis
IRAS ID
262729
Contact name
Francesca Washington
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Holloway, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 0 days
Research summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive disorder of the central nervous system. There are various treatment options known as disease modifying drugs (DMD’s), which may be able to reduce relapse rates and the progression of the disease. However, many of them come with adverse side effects which makes deciding on the most suitable option a challenge for patients. The Benefits and Risks of Medication for MS (BRIMMS) protocol designed by Reen et al. (2017), provides an alternative format to consultation as usual provided by a doctor. BRIMMS has been shown to improve patients' understanding. There is growing evidence that health literacy has important implications for health-related outcomes and this study aims to investigate whether health literacy can predict understanding and decision making for MS treatments. This study will also consider other relevant patient characteristics, including disease-specific knowledge and numerical reasoning ability. The study will also seek to confirm previous findings which demonstrate the effectiveness of the BRIMMS protocol in supporting patients to make an informed decision about which drug treatment to choose and elucidate the effects of patient characteristics (health literacy, disease knowledge and numerical ability) on the BRIMMS protocol outcome.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0233
Date of REC Opinion
17 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion