Managing MS well requires self-management skills, including decision-making skills. It also requires considerable guidance and teaching from healthcare professionals on health and wellness strategies. However, current gaps in the availability and quality of resources in this area can make decision-making for people living with MS challenging. The need for smoking cessation is an example of an area of MS care which has received a lot of attention in recent times, but there is little in the way of direct guidance for people living with MS to stop smoking successfully.
Associate Professor Claudia Marck’s research aims to uncover these gaps and help develop resources to promote safer and more effective outcomes for people living with MS. There are several areas of focus in this research. Associate Professor Marck aims to develop smoking cessation resources specifically for the MS community. Additionally, the team will develop new statistical methods to assess the effectiveness of different MS treatments such as psychological interventions and physical activity, not just medications. Associate Professor Marck will also focus on these treatments and their impact on common MS symptoms, such as walking impairment, depression and fatigue. In her research, Associate Professor Marck also hopes to more deeply understand how self-management skills and access to healthcare may be impacted by crises, such as the recent Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outcomes from this research will assist both healthcare professionals working in MS, and people living with MS, to access appropriate resources to promote self-management, decision making and wellness, improving both quality of life and health in general.
Associate Professor Marck’s team recruited and interviewed MS nurses and neurologists about their awareness and acceptance of MS clinical practice guidelines and what were the enablers and barriers to using these guidelines. The team found variations in how nurses and neurologists used these guidelines, although they believed they can improve consistency, safety and quality of care for people with MS. The team identified various enablers and barriers to using guidelines that may improve the development of future guidelines.
Associate Professor Marck’s team compared how effective and safe treatments for depression are in MS and found the strength of the published evidence was low. This means that no sensible decisions between treatments could be made. The team has made recommendations to improve the quality of clinical trials of depression treatments in MS, so that treatments can be compared in a meaningful way.
Associate Professor Marck’s team analysed the usefulness of the Red Cross RediPlan for preparing people with MS for disasters and crises. The team found that RediPlan was well-accepted and improved people’s ability to cope in a crisis, but it was time-consuming. The team developed a toolkit to accompany and improve the RediPlan, to be rolled out through MS nurses.
Associate Professor Marck is working with a German research group on smoking in MS. One of her students in Germany has developed a specific program to help people with MS quit smoking. Among almost 40 participants, 50% have successfully quit. The team plans to translate these resources into English and trial them in Australia.
Dr Marck has formed several collaborations, including with the research group in Germany, and has many publications with more under review in peer-reviewed scientific journals. She presented research findings at the European RIMS conference, and at the MS Nurses Australasia conference.
Updated 31 March 2025
$165,000
2021
3 years
Current project
