Preferences of inflammatory bowel disease patients for computerised versus face-to-face psychological interventions

Psychological interventions can be effective treatments for patients with medical illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, there are barriers to their widespread implementation such as lack of therapists, high costs, stigma, and poor accessibility in remote areas. Computerised psychological interventions can overcome these barriers. The aim of this study was to measure and compare the preferences of IBD patients for computerised versus face-to-face psychological interventions.

One hundred and two IBD patients were given a support willingness questionnaire which measured their willingness and confidence to participate in computerised and face-to-face psychological interventions as well as the number of sessions they would be willing to participate in.

IBD patients were more likely to want to take part in a computer based than face-to-face intervention (45.5% versus 16.8%, p=0.045). Furthermore, IBD patients were willing to participate in more sessions of computerised than face-to-face intervention median (5 vs. 3.5, Z=3.93, p<0.001). Younger females had a significantly higher acceptability of a computerised intervention than older females (χ(2)(1)=6.77, p=0.009) but the same was not found for males. Duration of disease was not associated with willingness to participate in an intervention.

IBD patients appear more willing to participate in a computerised than face-to face psychological intervention. Future studies should attempt to study the effectiveness of computerised psychological interventions in IBD.