Gender differences in information needs and preferences regarding depression among individuals with multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis

•People with multiple sclerosis (MS) desire a broad range of information related to depression.•Depression-related information needs of persons with MS inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis are similar.•Women express a desire for more information about depression than men. We assessed the information needs of persons with any of three immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (multiple sclerosis [MS], inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] and rheumatoid arthritis [RA]) regarding depression, as a first step toward developing patient-relevant information resources, ultimately to facilitate self-management and appropriate care. We also compared information needs across genders. We surveyed participants with MS, IBD and RA regarding depression-related information needs including types of treatments, effectiveness, risks, benefits, and perceived helpfulness of treatments. We compared responses between groups using multivariate regression. 328 participants provided complete responses (MS: 141, IBD: 114, RA: 73). Most of the topics queried were perceived as very important, and similarly important for all groups. Women placed higher importance than men on most topics. The most popular formats for receiving information were discussion with a counselor (very preferred: 67.4%) and written information (very preferred: 65.5%); this did not differ between groups. Persons affected by MS, IBD and RA are interested in receiving information about multiple topics related to depression treatment, from multiple sources. Women desire more information than men. These findings can be used to design information resources to meet information needs regarding depression in MS, IBD and RA.