Evaluating Materials to Educate Patients About Cervical Dysplasia

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Education; Cervical Dysplasia

Treatments: Behavioral: Questionnaire

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00454766

2006-1014

Details and patient eligibility

About

Primary Objective:

To pilot test high and low literacy patient education materials for colposcopy clinic patients, assessing impact on patient knowledge and patient feedback about the materials.

Full description

Women with an abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smear are typically referred for a colposcopy and biopsy. However, data collected by research groups and others shows that women with abnormal Pap smear results have limited understanding of the meaning of the results, the causes of cervical dysplasia, and the procedures used to evaluate and treat it. This situation is further complicated by the fact that many patients, particularly those with less education, have low health literacy in general. This means that much of the existing patient education materials will likely be inappropriate or ineffective for this group. One approach is to develop materials at low literacy levels; however, it is not known whether such materials will be provide sufficient information and be effective for patients with high health literacy.

The long term goal is to study the importance of tailoring patient education materials to colposcopy patients' level of health literacy. To this end, researchers have developed two educational brochures with approximately the same information, but which vary in their health literacy (readability) level. As a first step in this research, researchers propose to present these materials to colposcopy patients returning for colposcopy visits to assess changes in knowledge and obtain patient feedback on the brochures.

The proposed pilot study represents the first step at evaluating the patient education materials and determining the patient's level of understanding of what they receive.

Enrollment: 80 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Over 18 years old;
2. Follow up colposcopy clinic patients who completed a colposcopy and treatment (if indicated) at an earlier date;
3. Able to communicate in English

Exclusion Criteria: None

Trial design

80 participants in 1 patient group

Questionnaire

Description:

Questionnaire Regarding Tailored Educational Materials

Treatment:

Behavioral: Questionnaire