Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2023 May;73:104621. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.104621. Epub 2023 Mar 12.
People living with multiple sclerosis (MS) need access to high quality healthcare and support services. However, many people with MS do not have access to the services that they need.
To survey healthcare utilisation and perceived quality and accessibility amongst people living with MS who enroled in a free online course about MS (the Understanding MS massive open online course (MOOC)) and to evaluate the impact of course completion on these outcomes.
This longitudinal cohort study evaluated participants before they began the course, immediately following completion, and six months following completion. We describe baseline healthcare utilisation and perceived accessibility and quality (N = 813) and identify factors associated with satisfaction using chi-square and t-tests. We evaluate the impact of course completion amongst a sub-group (N = 123) of participants who both completed the course and completed all three assessments using paired t-tests. We determined effect size using Cohen's D.
Most participants accessed at least one healthcare service in the month before beginning the course and were satisfied with their healthcare accessibility and quality. Participants who reported being satisfied with their healthcare quality and accessibility had more healthcare visits, and greater MS knowledge, health literacy, quality of life and self-efficacy. Completing the Understanding MS MOOC had no effect on perceived healthcare accessibility or quality.
Our study suggests that people with MS who access online educational resources are likely to be well resourced in other areas as well. Our findings also suggest that a more targeted intervention may be necessary to improve healthcare accessibility and quality outcomes in people with MS.
多发性硬化症（MS）患者需要获得高质量的医疗保健和支持服务。然而，许多 MS 患者无法获得他们所需的服务。
调查参加关于 MS 的免费在线课程（即理解 MS 大规模开放在线课程（MOOC））的 MS 患者的医疗保健利用情况以及他们对医疗保健的感知质量和可及性，并评估课程完成对这些结果的影响。
这项纵向队列研究在参与者开始课程之前、完成后立即以及完成后六个月对他们进行了评估。我们描述了基线医疗保健利用情况以及感知可及性和质量（N=813），并使用卡方检验和 t 检验确定了与满意度相关的因素。我们使用配对 t 检验评估了在完成课程且完成所有三项评估的亚组（N=123）参与者中课程完成的影响。我们使用 Cohen 的 D 确定了效应大小。
大多数参与者在开始课程前的一个月内至少访问了一项医疗保健服务，对他们的医疗保健可及性和质量感到满意。报告对医疗保健质量和可及性满意的参与者有更多的医疗保健访问，并且具有更高的 MS 知识、健康素养、生活质量和自我效能。完成理解 MS MOOC 对感知医疗保健可及性或质量没有影响。
我们的研究表明，使用在线教育资源的 MS 患者在其他方面也可能得到很好的资源支持。我们的研究结果还表明，可能需要更有针对性的干预措施来改善 MS 患者的医疗保健可及性和质量结果。
