Self-management interventions to support help-seeking behaviours in inflammatory bowel disease: a scoping review

Abstract

Background: Those living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) typically experience a range of physical, psychological and social challenges. However, there is little evidence of patients actively seeking help from health professionals to support their self-management planning for the challenges experienced outside of scheduled care. There is a growing body of research reviews on self-management interventions to support patients with IBD. While various positive effects of self-management were found across the interventions in these reviews, there was insufficient detail on what aspects of the self-management interventions were most effective in supporting patients to seek help from health professionals for challenges experienced with IBD. Aim: To determine the scope of studies that reported on self-management interventions, focused on supporting patients in seeking help from health professionals to manage the challenges associated with IBD. Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines for conducting scoping reviews were employed. Searches were conducted in five databases to locate articles and assess eligibility for inclusion. A total of 17 articles were eligible for inclusion. Narrative summary was employed to analyse the findings. Findings: The component of the intervention that facilitated help-seeking behaviour varied across all studies. The triggers identified for seeking help were physical, psychological and administrative in nature. Both the online interventions, which facilitated help-seeking behaviour via instant messaging, email and telephone calls, and IBD helplines proved effective in facilitating help-seeking. Conclusion: There is a need to conduct qualitative research examining patients' experiences of seeking help for the challenges associated with IBD, as well as expanding the data on identifying their preferred methods of seeking help, as well as perceived facilitators and triggers to seeking help.