Amelioration of Literacy Deficits in Prenatal Care

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Prenatal Care; Numeracy; Health Literacy

Treatments: Behavioral: Healthy Babies and Healthy Moms; Behavioral: Baby Basics Prenatal Guide

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT05974865

R01HD050437 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

HD050437

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate a skill-based, computer intervention designed to facilitate effective prenatal visit communication for women with restricted literacy.

Full description

The primary aim of the study is to develop and evaluate a skills-based, interactive computer intervention designed to enhance the communication skills of pregnant women with restricted literacy. To this end, a randomized trial compared a skill-based computer intervention to a facilitated review of pertinent print-based educational material on communication processes and its consequences. Intervention impact was evaluated through medical visit recordings and post-visit assessments by patients and clinicians. We hypothesized that women assigned to the skills-based, computer intervention would demonstrate greater use of targeted skills, be more actively engaged in the communication process, and experience more patient-centered visits than women assigned to the print-based intervention. We also hypothesized that computer use would result in greater visit satisfaction and closer patient and clinician alignment in their assessment of the patient's physical and emotional health status..

Study Design included 84 women seeing 19 obstetrical clinicians were randomized to use an interactive, skill-based, computer program or to a personalized review of a prenatal guide. Prenatal visits were recorded and coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Post-visit satisfaction and perceptions of physical and emotional health were reported. Analysis adjusted for the nesting of patients within physicians, gestation, literacy and visit length.

Enrollment: 355 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 16+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women attending study prenatal clinics with consenting clinicians. English speaking

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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355 participants in 2 patient groups

Healthy Babies and Health Moms

Experimental group

Description:

Healthy Babies and Healthy Moms was designed as a 20-minute communication skills-based computer program based on key social learning principles designed to empower women to more actively and productively use targetted skills to improve the medical dialogue of their prenatal visits.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Healthy Babies and Healthy Moms

Baby Basics Prenatal Guide

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Baby Basics Prenatal Guide, published by the What to Expect Foundation, was used in a face-to-face educational session with a study research assistant during which pregnancy related information was personalized by reviewing relevant sections of the Baby Basics prenatal guide.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Baby Basics Prenatal Guide