Clinical trial NCT04002557: Optimising Consultation Summaries to Promote Good Health
Official title: Optimising Consultation Summaries to Promote Good Health/Views of Adolescents Attending Diabetes Clinic
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Type1 Diabetes
Keywords: diabetes
clinic letter
clinic summary
post-consultation letter
Lead sponsor: Imperial College London
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-06-28
Enrollment: 9
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 12
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Observational model: ECOLOGIC_OR_COMMUNITY
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Young people aged 12-18 years attending a single diabetes outpatient clinic were invited to enrol. This clinic served patients from a wide geographical area across London and the South-East England with broad socio-economic status, diabetes control and ethnicity.

Brief summary: Patient participation in decision making about their care promotes patient satisfaction and confidence. Further more, allowing patients to see letters written about them enables trust, encourages patients to be involved in decision making process and allow patient understanding.

Little is known about how young people value these letters in the same way. Only one brief questionnaire study focused on adolescent views and found that young people wished to receive consultation summaries.

This research aims explore the views of adolescent patients related to consultation summaries that they receive following a doctor's appointment. The investigator will use patients attending a specialist diabetes clinic as our cohort and conduct a qualitative study using focus groups.

Detailed description: Patient participation in decision making processes about their care promotes patient satisfaction and confidence. As part of this, allowing patients to see letters written about them enables trust, encourages patients to be involved in decision making process and allow patient understanding. Given this, the 2000 NHS plan made it a requirement that all medical correspondence between health professionals is shared with patients.

It is estimated that 40-80% of information discussed during a consultation is forgotten immediately. Written summaries have shown to be an effective method of improving patient recall of information by 20.8%.

The literature on the benefits/disadvantages of consultation summaries is largely focused on adult patients with little research done to explore the views of adolescent population. Where the patient is a child, the literature is only focussed on parents of children and not the children themselves. Limited research has shown that parents/care givers report clinic letters being useful in assisting with better understanding and management of their child's condition.

Little is known about how young people value these letters in the same way. Only one brief questionnaire study focused on adolescent views and found that young people wished to receive consultation summaries.

Adolescence is an important time of an individual's life. This is the time when many independent health behaviours are established. During adolescence, young people start showing more interest in their own health and often wish to participate in decision making processes regarding their care. The role of health workers at this stage is to appreciate young people as individuals . Clinic summaries addressed directly to young people might play an important role in assisting with establishment of health behaviours and promoting good health in young people.

The aim of this research is to understand the views of adolescent patients on consultation summaries and identify factors can improve these summaries and subsequently their health and well-being.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Adolescents aged 12-18 years attending UCLH adolescent diabetes outpatient clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

* Young people who cannot speak English (effective communication with colleagues during the study is the major aspect of valid data collection)
* Young people who refuse to participate in focus group discussions

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of Participants That Completed Interviews About Consultation Summaries They Were Receiving
timeFrame: 1 month
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: London
country: United Kingdom
facility: University College London Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: Imperial College London
name: David Inwald
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
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citation: Lawton J, Waugh N, Noyes K, Barnard K, Harden J, Bath L, Stephen J, Rankin D. Improving communication and recall of information in paediatric diabetes consultations: a qualitative study of parents' experiences and views. BMC Pediatr. 2015 Jun 10;15:67. doi: 10.1186/s12887-015-0388-6.
citation: Waterston T, San Lazaro C. Sending parents outpatient letters about their children: parents' and general practitioners' views. Qual Health Care. 1994 Sep;3(3):142-6. doi: 10.1136/qshc.3.3.142.
citation: A new series starts: the ABC of adolescence. (2005). BMJ, 330(7486).