MINDSET: Clinic-based decision support demonstrates longitudinal efficacy for increased epilepsy self-management adherence among Spanish speaking patients

Background: MINDSET, a bilingual (Eng./Span.) decision support tool was found feasible for facilitating goal-based epilepsy self-management (ESM) in the clinic. Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of MINDSET to increase ESM adherence among Hispanic patients. Methods: A RCT was conducted from August 2017 through January 2019. Spanish and English speaking Hispanic adult patients (n = 94) with epilepsy in Arizona (n = 53) and Texas (n = 41) were randomly assigned within 6 neurology clinics to treatment (MINDSET plus Usual Care, hereafter referred to as MINDSET; n = 46) and comparison (Usual Care Only; n = 48) conditions. Self-reported self-management behavior (assessed through the Epilepsy Self-management scale) were categorized as adherent if performed ‘usually’ or ‘always.’ The proportion of adherence was compared between study conditions for 36 individual ESM behaviors and 5 ESM domains using Fischer's exact test. Results: The average time between visit 1 through 3 was 350+/−79 days with retention at 96.8%. Participants in the treatment condition had more college education and less unemployment. Self-management adherence improved across visits for all self-management behaviors irrespective of study condition. Compared to usual care MINDSET use led to greater ESM adherence for 86.1% behaviors (5 with statistical significance; p < 0.05) and to significant improvement in the ESM domain of ‘information management’ (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Implementation of MINDSET within regular neurology visits may assist Hispanic adults with epilepsy to increase their adherence to ESM behaviors and maintain this adherence longitudinally. Replication with a broader demographic population of people with epilepsy is indicated.