EFFECT OF READABILITY AND TEACHING STRATEGY ON KNOWLEDGE OF PATIENTS' RIGHTS AND HEALTH LOCUS-OF-CONTROL (CONSUMERISM, HOSPITALS, ELDERLY).
Contributors: Hofstra University.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 169
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Consumer education in the area of patients' rights is lacking. Current efforts in the area are limited and have been identified as inappropriate for general use. Research on the topic is sparse. To begin to fill the need in this area, this empirical investigation was conducted. The purposes of this study were twofold: first, to examine whether or not the readability of written material on patients' rights (patients' bill of rights document) affected knowledge of patients' rights and health locus of control orientation; second, to examine the effect of two different teaching strategies on knowledge of patients' rights and health locus of control orientation--one strategy which utilized only written material (monomodal strategy), and one which utilized written material and a researcher-designed audiovisual presentation (multimodal strategy). It was expected that knowledge of patients' rights (as measured through the use of a researcher-designed multiple choice test) would be greater with exposure to a more comprehensible patients' bill of rights document and with utilization of a multimodal strategy. It was also expected that an internal health locus of control orientation (belief that one has control over his/her own health) would evolve as an individual became more knowledgeable about his/her own rights.

The sample was composed of 102 senior citizens who attended senior citizens' groups. Results of a multivariate two-way analysis of variance demonstrated that readability and teaching strategy, in combination (interaction), affected knowledge of patients' rights and health locus of control. Examination of the univariate tests of significance and the discriminant functions revealed that the interaction of readability and teaching strategy had a significant (p < .05) effect on internal health locus of control, with 45% of its variance accounted for by the interaction. Furthermore, the interaction had meaningful effects on powerful others health locus of control and knowledge of patients' rights, with 23% and 15% of their variances accounted for, respectively. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research were discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: B, page: 0992.

Thesis (PH.D.)--HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, 1985.

School code: 0086.