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Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Training to Increase Minority Enrollment in Lupus Clinical Trials with CommunitY Engagement (TIMELY) program on enhancing referrals of underrepresented patients to lupus clinical trials. TIMELY leverages two existing American College of Rheumatology online educational initiatives: Materials to Increase Minority Involvement in Clinical Trials (MIMICT), a continuing medical education (CME) activity for healthcare providers, and the Community Health Worker (CHW) Lupus Clinical Trials Training (LuCTT). TIMELY introduced a unique roundtable meeting format to build upon the existing online educational programs and facilitate discussions between local clinical trial sites and provider and CHW participants., Methods: This study used an online pre-test/post-test design to assess changes in theory-based behavioral predictors of lupus clinical trial referrals/engagement (i.e. knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and intentions) among providers and CHWs. Participants completed MIMICT/LuCTT and then were eligible to participate in roundtable meetings. Paired t-tests were used to assess changes in composite scores pre-post intervention for each of the outcomes., Results: The final sample included 40 providers and 18 CHWs. Knowledge scores increased significantly for both providers (<0.01) and CHWs (p<0.001) on completion of MIMICT/LuCTT. After participating in the TIMELY roundtable, providers' composite scores for self-efficacy and intentions significantly increased (p<0.001). Provider self-efficacy gains were sustained at 3-month follow up (p<0.001)., Conclusion: These promising findings highlight the potential and opportunities for the TIMELY program to improve behavioral predictors of trial referrals, including CHW knowledge and providers' knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions to refer underrepresented patients to lupus clinical trials., (This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Substantial disparities exist in clinical trial participation, which is problematic in diseases such as lupus that disproportionately affect racial/ethnic minority populations. Our objective was to examine the effectiveness of an online educational course aiming to train medical providers to refer Black and Latino patients to lupus clinical trials (LCTs)., Methods: The American College of Rheumatology's Materials to Increase Minority Involvement in Clinical Trials (MIMICT) study used an online, randomized, 2-group, pretest/posttest design with medical and nursing providers of multiple specialties. We exposed intervention group participants to an education course, while the control group participants received no intervention. Controlling for the effects of participant characteristics, including specialty, and professional experience with lupus, we modeled relationships among exposure to the education course and changes in knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and intentions to refer Black and Latino patients to LCTs. We also examined education course satisfaction., Results: Compared to the control group, the intervention group had significantly higher posttest scores for knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions to refer Black and Latino patients to LCTs. Both medical and nursing trained intervention group participants had significantly higher mean posttest scores for knowledge and intentions to refer compared to the medical and nursing trained control group participants. Attitude was insignificant in analysis. The online education course, which received a favorable summary score, indicated that satisfaction and intentions to refer were strongly and positively correlated., Conclusion: The MIMICT education course is an effective method to educate medical providers about LCTs and to improve their intentions to refer Black and Latino patients., (© 2022 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Supportive close relationships are important for health. Mutuality, the reciprocal sharing of thoughts and feelings in close relationships, is linked with better outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in cross-sectional data. Hypothesizing that mutuality has a beneficial impact on inflammation, we tested potentially causal relations of couple mutuality with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in prospective data., Methods: Female patients with RA (n = 70; mean age 57 years, mean RA disease duration 5 years) completed questionnaires at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months, including measures of mutuality, RA flares, and negative affect. ESR laboratory values available near questionnaire dates were collected from medical charts. Using regression, we examined cross-lagged effects of mutuality and ESR over the two 6-month time spans (baseline to 6 months, 6 months to 12 months). We anticipated that mutuality would exert lagged inverse effects on subsequent ESR levels, and that ESR would have no effect on subsequent mutuality levels., Results: After controlling for lagged effects of earlier inflammation, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, antiinflammatory drugs, RA flares, and negative affect, mutuality's lagged inverse effects over both time spans accounted for unique variance in subsequent levels of ESR, explaining 9% at 6 months and 12.5% at 12 months. Concomitantly, earlier ESR had no effect on subsequent mutuality., Conclusion: Patients with RA reporting more mutuality had less inflammation at subsequent time points, but inflammation had no effect on subsequent reports of mutuality. This suggests that mutuality exerts a beneficial effect on inflammation. Clinical implications and potential applications are discussed.