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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT01986790

Effective Communication to Improve Decision Making About Health Care Plans

The overall goal of the study is to better understand how communication strategies can help people make decisions about health insurance plans.

This study aims to:

* (Aim 1) Examine currently uninsured individuals' understanding of terminology and details of health insurance plans; * (Aim 2) Apply three recommended strategies for communicating information about health insurance plans; * (Aim 3) Test the effects of these strategies in a randomized experiment.

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Key information

Conditions

Health Literacy Health Insurance Health Services Accessibility

Age range

18 year–64 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

The Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

St Louis, Missouri, 63110, United States

About this study

First, this study will examine people's understanding of health insurance plan terminology and details through qualitative interviews with 50 uninsured individuals. These responses will then lead to the development of three communication strategies to improve understanding of health insurance plans: 1) plain language, 2) plain language plus visual displays and 3) plain language plus narratives.

The strategies will the be pilot tested with 30 individuals to assess readability, clarity of language, and layout. The revised communication strategies will be tested with 280 individuals in a randomized experiment. Individuals will be randomly assigned to either a plain language condition alone, a plain language + visual displays condition, and a plain language + narrative condition.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Must be without health insurance currently
  • Must have been without health insurance at some point in the past 12 months
  • Must speak English

Exclusion criteria

  • Currently has health insurance and has not had any lapses in coverage in the past 12 months
  • Does not speak English

Treatment and study plan

Plain Language

Behavioral

Plain Language + Visuals

Behavioral

Plain Language + Narratives

Behavioral

Primary outcomes

  1. Knowledge

    Time frame: 1 day (Immediately following showing the participant the assigned intervention (plain language table, plain language table + visuals, or plain language table + narratives)

    Knowledge measures the degree at which participants understand the details about health insurance plans. Knowledge was scored on a scale from 0 to 7 based on number of correct answers to the 7 items. A higher value is considered to be a better outcome. Bivariate outcome data can be found below.

  2. Uncertainty

    Time frame: 1 day (Immediately following showing the participant the assigned intervention (plain language table, plain language table + visuals, or plain language table + narratives)

    A survey will be administered in order to measure participants' confidence in the features of health insurance plans that matter most to them and the insurance plan they chose of the ones presented. Confidence in choice is scored on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more decisional conflict/more uncertainty/less confidence in choice. Bivariate outcome data can be found below.

  3. Satisfaction

    Time frame: 1 day (Immediately following showing the participant the assigned intervention (plain language table, plain language table + visuals, or plain language table + narratives)

    A survey will be administered in order to measure the extent to which participants are satisfied with the information presented to them. Satisfaction was scored on a scale from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating higher levels of satisfaction. Bivariate outcome data can be found below.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Other

Collaborators

  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2012
Primary completion
2014
Study completion
2014
First posted
Nov 18, 2013
Registry last updated
Jun 9, 2016

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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