Highlights
- •At baseline (N = 905) communication confidence was positively associated with MS knowledge, health literacy, and quality of life.
- •At baseline (N = 905), men and people living with MS were more likely to report being confident than women and people not living with MS.
- •Among participants who completed the course and all three study surveys (N = 88), course participation improved communication confidence and this improvement was maintained six months after course completion.
- •The improvement in communication confidence was positively correlated with improvements in MS knowledge and health literacy.
Abstract
Background
Effective communication is essential for multiple sclerosis (MS) disease management.
Improving communication about MS may improve healthcare and service quality.
Objective
To evaluate confidence in communicating about MS in a cohort of MS community members
and to assess the impact of participation in the Understanding MS massive open online
course (MOOC) on communication confidence. The Understanding MS MOOC is a freely available
six-week online course that covers a range of topics related to MS, including its
underlying pathology, symptoms, risk factors, and management.
Methods
We assessed communication confidence among Understanding MS MOOC enrolees (N = 905) at three timepoints: prior to their participation in the course, immediately
following course completion, and six months following course completion. Communication
confidence was quantified using 5-point Likert scale questions. We identified factors
that were associated with communication confidence using chi square and t-tests. Among
course completers who also completed all three study surveys (N = 88), we assessed the impact of course participation using paired t-tests and we
assessed effect size using Cohen's D. We assessed the relationship between changes
in primary and secondary outcomes (i.e., MS-related knowledge, health literacy, quality
of life, perceived healthcare quality, and self-efficacy) using Pearson correlation.
Results
We found that at baseline, communication confidence was positively associated with
MS knowledge, health literacy and quality of life. We also found that men and people
with MS were more likely to report being confident. Among study participants who completed
the course and all three study surveys, we found that course participation improved
communication confidence and that this improvement was maintained at the six-month
follow-up. The improvement in communication confidence was positively correlated with
changes in MS knowledge and health literacy.
Conclusion
Confidence in communicating about MS is associated with MS knowledge and health literacy.
By improving MS knowledge and health literacy, online educational interventions such
as the Understanding MS MOOC can improve communication confidence in the MS community.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Multiple Sclerosis and Related DisordersAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Communication and informed consent.Curr. Opin. Oncol. 2005; 17: 336-339
- Communication practices that encourage and constrain shared decision making in health-care encounters: systematic review of conversation analytic research.Health Expect. 2017; 20: 1228-1247
- An exploratory study regarding communication facilitators and barriers reported by a cohort of multiple sclerosis (MS) community members from the international massive open online course ‘Understanding MS.MS Relat. Disord. 2022; 59103473
- Health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration of definitions and models.BMC Public Health. 2012; 12: 80
International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL). What is Quality of life [Internet]. Accessed 3 May 2021. Available from: http://www.isoqol.org/about-isoqol/what-is-health-related-quality-of-life-research.
- Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.Psychol. Rev. 1977; 84: 191-215
- Development and psychometric properties of the Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge Assessment Scale: rasch analysis of a novel tool for evaluating MS knowledge.MSJ. 2021; 27: 767-777
- The grounded psychometric development and initial validation of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ).BMC Public Health. 2013; 13: 658
- An Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the Personal Wellbeing Index.School of Psychology, Deakin University, VIC, Australia2014 (Bachelor (Honours))
- The English and Spanish Self-Efficacy to Manage Chronic Disease Scale measures were validated using multiple studies.J. Clin. Epidemiol. 2014; 67: 1265-1273
- Measurement properties of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) in the Understanding Multiple Sclerosis massive open online course cohort: a Rasch analysis.Health Liter. Res. Pract. 2022; 6: e200-e212
- Statistical Power Analysis For the Behavioral Sciences.Routledge Academic, New York, NY1988
- Student confidence as a measure of learning in an undergraduate Principles of Horticultural Science course.Horttechnology. 2010; 20: 683-688
- Association between MS-related knowledge, health literacy, self-efficacy, and quality of life in a large cohort of MS community members: a cross-sectional study.MSARD. 2021; 54103158
- Highly confident but wrong: gender differences and similarities in confidence judgements.J. Educ. Psychol. 1994; 86: 114-121
- Evaluating the impact of the Understanding Multiple Sclerosis online course on participant MS knowledge, health literacy, resilience, self-efficacy, quality of life, and MS symptom severity.MSARD. 2022; (103717/j.msard.2022.103717)
Claflin S.B., Bessing B., van der Mei I., Campbell J.A., Taylor B.V. Gains in multiple sclerosis knowledge following completion of the Understanding Multiple Sclerosis online course are maintained six months after course completion. Accepted at MSARD.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 06, 2023
Accepted:
May 6,
2023
Received in revised form:
April 18,
2023
Received:
November 23,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V.
