A Study of the Effect of Patient Education (Talking Health Together) in Improving Doctor-patient Communication

AstraZeneca

Status: Completed

Conditions: Doctor-patient Communication Improvement

Treatments: Other: placebo; Behavioral: THT PACE Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Industry; Other

Identifiers

NCT00879736

THT in practice

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is being carried out to see if patients make the lifestyle changes or take their medication as instructed by their doctor during their visit as a result of the T.H.T. patient-education training. Proper information exchange between doctors and patients is an important part of quality health care. Although many patients would like more information, they often do not ask for it directly during doctor-patient visits. The patient-training in this study specifically aims at improving patient participation during medical appointments by building communication skills such as requests for information and sharing health concerns with the doctor.

Enrollment: 322 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female, aged 40 years of age or greater
• Clinical documentation of diagnosis not to target of at least one of the following: Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension or Hypercholesterolemia
• Receive a prescribed medication for the chronic disease for which they were included in the study

Exclusion criteria

• Patients in active phase of cancer treatment (i.e. chemotherapy or radiotherapy at time of study).
• Inability to carry out the encounter with their physician in English without need of assistance
• Uncomfortable using a computer for routine activities such as regular access to the web and e-mail.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

322 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

THT PACE eLearning module

Active Comparator group

Description:

The PACE (prepare, ask, check, express) training methodology will be available to patients before their 2nd doctor visit

Treatment:

Behavioral: THT PACE Training

Behavioral: THT PACE Training

THT PACE eLearning module & nurse-led workshop training

Active Comparator group

Description:

THT PACE eLearning and then nurse-led workshop for training on PACE methodology

Treatment:

Behavioral: THT PACE Training

Behavioral: THT PACE Training

Usual care

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Patients just go to their doctor as they normally would but get some disease specific information in the form of brochures as do intervention arms

Treatment:

Other: placebo