Counseling to Optimize Adherence in Expectant Mothers With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

IBD and Pregnancy: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that comprises two subtypes, Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), Canada has among the highest reported incidence of CD and UC in the world, as high as 20.2 and 19.5 per 100,000, respectively. Because the risk of IBD is greatest during the third decade of life, its greatest impact for women in during the reproductive years. In comparison to the general population, women with IBD have a significantly higher risk of pregnancy related complications.

IBD Disease Activity and Outcomes: Active IBD symptoms during pregnancy significantly increase the risk of preterm birth. Furthermore, women with IBD who suffer a relapse during pregnancy, requiring hospitalization, are more likely than their asymptomatic counterparts to delivery preterm birth and low birth weight newborns. More than two-thirds of women who have active disease at the time of conception will have continued or worsened symptoms during pregnancy. In contrast, women who are asymptomatic at conception are half as likely to have active disease during pregnancy. This data underscores the importance of achieving disease remission prior to conception and aggressively treating relapses during pregnancy.

Medication Adherence During Pregnancy: Despite the safety of most IBD medications, most pregnant women with IBD exhibit low medication adherence rates. Medication non-compliance is often linked to concerns that IBD medication may confer unnecessary harm to the fetus. Most women have reported that they would rather endure symptoms of IBD rather than confer risk to the fetus, without realizing that active IBD itself is strongly associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Consequently, most of these women decrease the dosage or stop their medications without informing their treating physicians, thus comprising treatment.

Motivational Interviewing Adherence: Motivational Interviewing (MI) refers to a patient-centered process in which a health care provider employs specific communication skills and strategies that facilitate the patients confidence and decision making, while emphasising respect for autonomy. A key feature of MI is that the counselling process induces behavioural change by triggering and channelling a patient's internal motivations for change. Previous clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of MI in improving medication adherence for various chronic condition, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity and HIV. In a small study of IBD subjects, MI was associated with positive patient perceptions of the physician-patient relationship. In another pilot study, nurse-administered MI in UC patients was associated with medication adherence as high as 90%.

Rationale: Pregnancy is an especially vulnerable time for women with IBD. During this critical window of time, even brief lapses in medication adherence can lead to sub optimal control of IBD disease activity that can lead to life-threatening complications to both mother and fetus. Adverse outcomes such as preterm delivery have long-term implications for the children of mother with IBD. Out of misguided concerns for their fetus, many women may stop lifesaving medications. Educating pregnant women with IBD is an important step in improving adherence rates, but tools such as motivational interviewing have proven to be much more powerful. As such the primary objective of this study is to assess, through a multi-center clinical trial, whether patient-centered counselling incorporating motivational interviewing and telemedicine-based follow-up by an IBD nurse leads to improved medication adherence during pregnancy and improved pregnancy outcomes. The investigators hypothesize that patient-centered counselling will result in higher medication adherence rates and improved pregnancy outcomes.

Design: The investigators will conduct a multi-center randomized controlled clinical trial that includes 3 University of Toronto affiliated hospitals (Mount Sinai Hospital, University Health Network, and Women's College Hospital) and the University of Calgary.

Study Population: The investigators will enroll 220 pregnant women who have or will be seen by: an obstetrician or maternal fetal specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital or the University of Calgary; or a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, University Health Network, Women's College, or the University of Calgary who meet the inclusion criteria.

Significance: This clinical intervention has the potential to directly impact inflammatory bowel disease patients by reducing complications of the disease during pregnancy. Motivational interviewing can potentially improve adherence and optimize the impact of IBD medical therapies. Most tertiary centers already have clinical IBD nurses. The structured training of an IBD nurse to counsel pregnant women through motivational interviewing is a reproducible intervention and can be used at tertiary centers throughout the country. Because poor disease control can lead to preterm delivery, which is associated with lifelong chronic illnesses, patient-centered counselling would not only ameliorate the IBD health of mothers, but also improve the lives of their children. Findings from this study would also allow physicians to lobby provincial health ministries to request funds for IBD nurse counsellors.