Clinical trial NCT00879736: A Study of the Effect of Patient Education (Talking Health Together) in Improving Doctor-patient Communication
Official title: A Multi-centre, Randomised Trial in Ontario to Evaluate the Efficacy of Talking Health Together T.M. (T.H.T. in Practice), a Communication Education Intervention for Primary Care Patients With Chronic Disease.
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Doctor-patient Communication Improvement
Keywords: Doctor-patient communication
Encounters
Patient education training
Lead sponsor: AstraZeneca
Sponsor class: INDUSTRY
Collaborators: name: Dr. Marie-Therese Lussier
name: Dr. Claude Richard
First posted: 2009-04-10
Enrollment: 322
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 40
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study is being carried out to see if patients make the lifestyle changes or take their medication as instructed by their doctor during their visit as a result of the T.H.T. patient-education training. Proper information exchange between doctors and patients is an important part of quality health care. Although many patients would like more information, they often do not ask for it directly during doctor-patient visits. The patient-training in this study specifically aims at improving patient participation during medical appointments by building communication skills such as requests for information and sharing health concerns with the doctor.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Male or female, aged 40 years of age or greater
* Clinical documentation of diagnosis not to target of at least one of the following: Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension or Hypercholesterolemia
* Receive a prescribed medication for the chronic disease for which they were included in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients in active phase of cancer treatment (i.e. chemotherapy or radiotherapy at time of study).
* Inability to carry out the encounter with their physician in English without need of assistance
* Uncomfortable using a computer for routine activities such as regular access to the web and e-mail.

Primary outcomes:
measure: To evaluate the impact, compared to Usual Care, of training interventions on patients with chronic disease on patient participation in primary care encounters assessed after intervention.
timeFrame: once
Secondary outcomes:
measure: physician satisfaction and sense of partnership with the doctor-patient encounter;
measure: patient perception of quality of doctor-patient communication and relationship and patient confidence in own ability to communicate effectively with their doctor;
timeFrame: Twice
measure: patient perception of the management of their chronic disease(s); and patient recall of discussions of lifestyle recommendations and chronic disease medications discussed during the encounter.
timeFrame: Twice
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Burlington
country: Canada
facility: Research Site
state: Ontario
city: Hamilton
country: Canada
facility: Research Site
state: Ontario
city: Kitchener-Waterloo
country: Canada
facility: Research Site
state: Ontario
city: Mississauga
country: Canada
facility: Research Site
state: Ontario
city: Oakville
country: Canada
facility: Research Site
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: Université de Montréal
name: Dr. Marie-Thérèse Lussier, MD, BSc., MSc., FCMFC
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: