The Virtual BETTER Study

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Status: Completed

Conditions: Delivery Modality of BETTER Intervention

Treatments: Other: Video-Call Prevention Practitioner Visit; Other: Phone Prevention Practitioner Visit; Other: In-Person Prevention Practitioner Visit

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05425797

CIHRVirtualBETTER

Details and patient eligibility

About

The focus of this project is to examine how delivering virtual care impacts health behaviour change for patients with chronic illnesses compared to in-person visits using a chronic disease prevention and screening (CDPS) program called BETTER (Building on Existing Tools To ImprovE Chronic Disease PRevention and Screening in Primary Care).

Full description

While the current pandemic has launched a likely irreversible transition towards increased utilization of virtual methods for delivery of healthcare, we have only a very superficial understanding of how this shift will affect health outcomes and equity of access to health services. Several randomized trials comparing virtual to in-person delivery of health services have been completed, but none have examined the effect of interventions to address health behaviours, arguably one of the most challenging issues in healthcare and one that is most sensitive to the therapeutic relationship and modifiers to that relationship such as the mode of communication. The focus of this project is to examine how delivering virtual care impacts health behaviour change for patients with chronic illnesses compared to in-person visits using a chronic disease prevention and screening (CDPS) program called BETTER (Building on Existing Tools To ImprovE Chronic Disease PRevention and Screening in Primary Care).

Enrollment: 92 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Persons aged 40-70
• Persons who are already booking a BETTER prevention visit.

Exclusion criteria

• Persons with the presence of a terminal illness
• Persons in active treatment (i.e., systemic and/or radiation therapy) for cancer.
• Persons who are unable to provide informed consent.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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92 participants in 3 patient groups

In-Person

Active Comparator group

Description:

Standard Prevention Practitioner visit that will take place in-person

Treatment:

Other: In-Person Prevention Practitioner Visit

Video

Experimental group

Description:

Prevention Practitioner visit that will take place through video call

Treatment:

Other: Video-Call Prevention Practitioner Visit

Phone

Experimental group

Description:

Prevention Practitioner visit that will take place through phone call

Treatment:

Other: Phone Prevention Practitioner Visit