Use of Teach Back to Improve Comprehension of Discharge Instructions for Emergency Patients With Limited Health Literacy

The Washington University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Conditions Influencing Health Status

Treatments: Behavioral: Teach-back

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01968291

201206011

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study was to determine whether use of teach-back discharge instructions improve patient satisfaction and patients' self-reported and objective comprehension of discharge instructions in the emergency department when compared to standard discharge instructions.

Enrollment: 254 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• patients being discharged from the emergency department
• A score of 6 or less on the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Revised (consistent with Limited Health Literacy)

Exclusion criteria

• aphasia,
• non-English speaking,
• mental handicap,
• psychiatric chief complaint,
• too high acuity per physician,
• insurmountable communication barrier,
• evaluations for sexual assault,
• clinical intoxication.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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254 participants in 2 patient groups

Teach-back

Experimental group

Description:

Patients are prompted to state back in their own words their comprehension of the information given to them at discharge.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Teach-back

Standard Discharge Instructions

No Intervention group

Description:

Patient receives usual discharge instructions as administered by the nurse assigned to the patient.