90Second IBD for the Improvement of Self Efficacy and Quality of Life in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have poorer quality of life than healthy people. Despite the high prevalence of psychological issues and its profound influence on quality of life, most IBD patients have limited access to mental health support. As well, many may decline support if it is offered because mental health is often not thought of as part of IBD care. Patients may be able to access cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) through a psychologist, however this intervention is costly and requires considerable commitment on the part of person with IBD. There is a need for new methods of reaching IBD patients to provide information on their psychological needs, and normalize the psychological effects of IBD. These new methods should integrate medical issues with psychosocial issues while being effective, scalable, and low cost to the health care system. 90SecondIBD is a novel way of delivering health information about IBD using Persuasive Design technology embedded in a planned behavior model. This project will investigate the effect of the intervention "90SecondIBD", a weekly online health letter, on IBD patients' quality of life and self efficacy. Regression modelling will be performed to explore the ability of clinical and demographic factors to predict quality of life and self efficacy scores following receipt of 90SecondIBD educational health letters weekly for 6 months and 12 months.