A140 UNDERSTANDING PATIENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF FECAL MICROBIOTA TRANSPLANT
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is under active investigation as a popular treatment option for a variety of diseases, including ulcerative colitis (UC). Despite increasing evidence for its therapeutic role, the current literature is limited in its scope to assess firsthand patient experiences. Aims To exlore perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of patients who chose to pursue FMT and patients who declined FMT in favor of conventional medications. Methods Using qualitative descriptive design, eligible patients were invited to participate in face-to-face semi-structured interviews before and after FMT treatment. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Main baseline themes across the FMT (n=9) and non-FMT (n=8) groups included: (i) knowledge of FMT, (ii) attitudes around FMT, and (iii) factors contributing to the decision to pursue FMT. Post-FMT themes included: (i) experiences with FMT, and (ii) perceived response to treatment. We found a poor general understanding of FMT across both cohorts, suggesting a need for improving patient education. Non-FMT patients were less likely to have heard or researched FMT in the past due to feelings of “it just sounds weird”. Similar concerns were found across both groups, including fear of transmissible infections, cost of an experimental therapy, and aversion to stool. Expectations varied between the two groups, with feelings of hope and a sense of “last resort” driving patients to pursue FMT. In contrast, the non-FMT cohort felt a need to further research FMT, explore other treatment options before committing to FMT, and were more likely to describe their disease activity as “not at the severe end”. This demonstrates that FMT may be perceived as a “last ditch effort”. Despite initial aversion, the non-FMT group demonstrated interest in learning more about FMT and felt more open to the possibility of pursuing FMT in the future. The FMT group was more likely to harbor a positive view of natural medicine and classify FMT as natural, while the non-FMT cohort expressed “I’m not really into the weird stuff”. Post-FMT, some patients expressed delight in the perceived changes in their symptoms, including improved quality of life, decreased urgency, and less concerns with accidents. Conclusions Our results suggest that important motivating factors for pursuing FMT are a perception of naturality and a sense of last resort. With improved education, FMT may pose an acceptable and tolerable treatment option for patients with UC. Funding Agencies Canadian IBD (CANIBD) Nursing
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.007 | 0.018 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".