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Treat me like a woman: a mixed studies review into treatment burden to develop gender sensitive rheumatic care.

Heijmans, M., Menting, J., Merode, T. van, Boeije, H. Treat me like a woman: a mixed studies review into treatment burden to develop gender sensitive rheumatic care. Utrecht: Nivel, 2019. 198 p.
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This research shows how people with rheumatic disorders experience the 'treatment burden', which aspects can be distinguished and whether this experience differs between men and women.

Key points:
- There appeared to be clear differences in the perceived treatment burden and in the perception of the disease as a whole, with more adverse consequences for women in all cases: women reported more pain and more complaints with (the administration of) medication, women more often had serious side effects , women spent more time on treatment and were less able to combine their treatment with paid work or roles within the family.
- Women and men appeared to differ in their preferences with regard to information provision and 'joint decision-making': Women needed more and more specific information and also wanted to take a more active role in their own treatment. Incidentally, they experienced little support from their care providers in this regard.

Follow-up
In the coming year (2020-2021), the results of this project will be further disseminated to patients and healthcare providers. To this end, a 'Discussion Guide' is being developed that helps healthcare professionals to better tailor care for women and men with rheumatism to their specific needs and wishes.

[This tool has now been developed. You can find it at: https://www.nivel.nl/nl/tool-aandachtswijzer-reumazorg-en-gender]