The Motherhood Choices Decision Aid for Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis Increases Knowledge and Reduces Decisional Conflict: A Randomized Controlled Study

The decision aid (DA) was developed by a team of researchers at the University of Western Sydney, The University of Sydney, and Arthritis New South Wales. The DA is a 45-page resource available in electronic or paper versions, and contains three distinct sections: 1) Information on RA, conception, pregnancy, and parenting; 2) decision making activities, and; 3) resources. Specifically, it provides women with information about RA and its effects, the impact of RA and medications on conception, pregnancy and motherhood, the impact of pregnancy on RA, and ‘women’s stories’. The booklet also contains worksheets to assist women in the decision making process, including a decision tree, scales to rate the pros and cons of each option, identifying support networks, a knowledge checklist, and a note taking section. Development of the DA was conducted based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework and following the guidelines of the IPDAS Collaboration. The DA is currently listed on the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Patient Decision Aid website: https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/AZsumm.php?ID=1787 The electronic version of the DA (i.e. in the form of a PDF) was the only intervention used in the current study. The participants were not provided with any further intervention(s).