Evaluating the Impact of Evidence-based Information About Mammography on Breast Cancer Screening Decisions

McMaster University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Breast Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Patient Decision Aid; Other: Sham information; Other: Evidence-based information

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03631758

4352

Details and patient eligibility

About

Patient decision aids are tools that help guide individuals through a healthcare-related decision making process. They help users combine evidence-based information and recommendations by a health care provider with their personal needs, values and preferences. Through this project, Dr. Dobbins and her research team will explore whether the use of patient decision aids with high-quality and user-friendly summaries of research evidence, or summaries of research evidence alone, help to improve the quality of decision making by women facing breast cancer screening decisions.

Full description

Guidelines for breast screening in Canada are based on low-moderate quality evidence of effectiveness and screening is associated with potential harms. Patient Decision Aids (PDAs) are tools that assist users to understand treatment options, risks and benefits to align decisions with values and preferences. The investigators would now like to know whether use of a PDA alongside evidence-based information provided through the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal, or simply access to evidence-based information alone, can help users to make informed decisions about breast cancer screening in women.

Enrollment: 209 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 40 to 49 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English speaking women, 40-49 years old
• Residents of British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island

Exclusion criteria

• History of breast cancer or mammography in the last 12 months
• Classified as above-average risk for breast cancer (i.e., known genetic mutation linked to BC; no genetic testing, but a parent, sibling or child with a genetic mutation linked to BC; or received chest wall radiation before age 30)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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209 participants in 3 patient groups

Experimental: Evidence + PDA

Experimental group

Description:

Evidence-based information on mammography such as blog posts, plain language evidence summaries and web resource ratings (quality-appraised online resources), plus a blog post on PDAs and the relevant decision aid from the Portal database

Treatment:

Other: Evidence-based information

Behavioral: Patient Decision Aid

Evidence only

Experimental group

Description:

The same evidence-based information as group 1 (Evidence + PDA), but without the PDA to quantify the effect of accessing evidence through the Portal alone

Treatment:

Other: Evidence-based information

Attention control

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Information on how to distinguish high from low-quality health information, not specific to cancer screening or PDAs

Treatment:

Other: Sham information