Clinical trial NCT00639470: Parents Reading Comprehension of Their Child's Post-Operative Medicine Fact Sheets
Official title: Parents Reading Comprehension of Their Child's Post-Operative Medicine Fact
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Parents
Keywords: Patient Education Handout
Parents
Patient Education
Lead sponsor: State University of New York - Upstate Medical University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-03-20
Enrollment: 23
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL

Brief summary: The objective of this study is to test legal guardians reading comprehension of their child's post-operative medication administration using three different versions of written medication information (standard fact sheets, easy-to-read fact sheets, and easy-to-read fact sheets accompanied by illustrations).

Detailed description: It is important for the child's welfare and comfort that the legal guardian can read and comprehend their child's pain medication information. Failure to understand the full implications of the medication may jeopardize the child's comfort level or welfare. Readability of printed education materials is a key to comprehension and supplements what healthcare providers verbally tell the parents/legal guardians. Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of using illustrations to convey intended messages. Simple line drawings appear to do well with those who have low-literacy skills.

The following hypothesis will be tested:

* There is no difference in level of comprehension of medication administration by the legal guardians who receive standard fact sheets about medication, those who receive easy-to-read fact sheets, and those who receive easy-to-read fact sheets accompanied by illustrations.
* There is no difference in level of comprehension of pain assessment by the legal guardians who receive standard fact sheets about assessing pain, those who receive easy-to-read fact sheets, and those who receive easy-to-read facts sheets accompanied by illustrations.
* There is no relationship between legal guardians' satisfaction with medication education and whether they receive standard fact sheets, easy-to-read fact sheets, or those who receive easy-to read fact sheets accompanied by illustrations.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* be 18 years of age or older or an emancipated minor
* ability to see, speak, and hear English
* have a child who will be undergoing surgery
* signed surgical consent form
* have a child staying on hospital pediatric surgical unit after surgery until discharge
* have a child admitted for at least one day but not more than 7 days.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Comprehension of the fact sheets as measured by the Cloze Readability Procedure.
timeFrame: On the day of discharge
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Syracuse
country: United States
facility: SUNY Upstate Medical University
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: State University of New York - Upstate Medical University
name: Sharon Kitchie, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: