Health Education in Improving the Understanding of Medical Information

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Unspecified Adult Solid Tumor, Protocol Specific
• Interventions: Other: Risk primer; Other: AHRQ staying healthy booklet

• Registration Number: NCT00387998
• Lead Sponsor: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Brief Summary

RATIONALE: Understanding the risk of disease and prevention and screening activities to lower disease risk may help individuals make informed medical decisions.

PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying how well health education materials help participants understand medical information.

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

* Compare medical data interpretation skills in participants of low or high socioeconomic status who receive a general education primer (entitled "Know Your Chances: Understanding Health Statistics") vs a health education booklet (entitled "The Pocket Guide to Good Heath for Adults").

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, controlled study. Participants are stratified according to socioeconomic status (low vs high). Participants are randomized to 1 of 2 intervention arms.

* Arm I (control): Participants receive a health education booklet entitled "The Pocket Guide to Good Health for Adults," published by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, which contains general information about disease risk and reducing risk by following recommended prevention or screening activities.

* Arm II (primer): Participants receive a general education primer entitled "Know your chances: Understanding health statistics," which teaches how to understand disease risk and the benefits and risks of intervention.

Within 2 weeks after receiving the education material, participants in both arms complete a survey, including a medical data interpretation test, STAT-interest, STAT-confidence, and user ratings of the education materials.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 555 participants were accrued for this study.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2004-10
• Primary Completion: 2005-08
• Study Completion: 2005-08
• Study First Submitted: 2006-10-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2006-10-12
• Study First Posted: 2006-10-13
• Status Verified: 2008-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-08-28
• Last Update Posted: 2013-08-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 555

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Risk primer	Risk primer	Booklet written by investigators "know your chances"
Control booklet	AHRQ staying healthy booklet	AHRQ staying healthy booklet

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Ability to interpret medical statistics as measured by a medical data interpretation test	2 weeks	medical data interpretation skills

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Interest in interpreting medical statistics, as measured by STAT-interest	2 weeks	STAT-interest measure
Confidence in interpreting medical statistics, measured by STAT-confidence	2 weeks	STAT-confidence
User ratings of materials	2 weeks