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Completed

NCT Number: NCT01266798

Effects of a Patient Directed Web-portal to Improve Health Literacy Skills

Access to the best available evidence, and the ability to obtain and understand such information is seen as necessary to protect the public's interests and critical to empowerment, but is also a precondition for participation in the decision making.

A web portal serving as a generic (non disease- specific) tailored tool was developed in the conceptual framework of shared decision making and evidence based practice to improve the lay- public's critical and social literacy skills and activation. A randomized controlled parallel trial using a simple randomization procedure will be conducted, including 200 parents of children <4 with internet access. Parents will be allocated to receive either the portal or no intervention. Primary and secondary outcomes include: the ability to find research based information, critical appraisal skills, perceived behavioural control, attitudes and perceived pressure associated with searching for information, and participation.

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Key information

Conditions

Health Behavior Behavior

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing

Oslo, 0130, Norway

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

  • Parents of children age <4 will be recruited with access to internet.

Exclusion criteria

  • Participants will be excluded if one other in the household already participates in the study (due to spill-over effect) and if they do not have children <4.
  • Since the recruitment will be done online, there is no need to screen for access to internet.

Treatment and study plan

Portal

Behavioral

The portal was tailored to improve the lay public's' "healthy skepticism", or in other words, critical and social literacy skills to assist patients in the decision-making process and for improving access to health information and participation. Illustrated by typical examples which can be found in the news and through patient stories, the portal provides an introduction to research methods, the underlying principles of science and critical assessment tools appropriate for a lay public.

  • A checklist for critical assessment of health information
  • Access to research databases for health information and an introduction to research methods and principles of science
  • A checklist to the consultation

Primary outcomes

  1. Changes in predictors of search and use of health information

    Time frame: Week 3

    Based on the theory of planned behavioral manual a questionnaire has been developed and validated in order to explore what predictors (efficacy, attitudes and perceived pressure) to search and use of health infomration.

Secondary outcomes

  1. The ability to find reliable answers to a health question

    Time frame: Week 1

    Participants will be asked to formulate a (health) question and to find information that can answer this question. The participants will be asked to copy and paste the internet link to the information they found.The outcome will be evaluated pragmatically by categorizing the information as based on: 1. research or 2. expert advice/ other. The information will be categorized blindly by two independent researchers. The direction of effect is expected to be positive, in that more participants will find research based information than those in the control group.

  2. Critical appraisal of health information

    Time frame: Week 2

    Participants will be asked to rate a piece of health information about childhood vaccination using DISCERNs item number 16. DISCERN is an instrument designed to judge the quality of written information about treatment choices. The mean value rating of the information will be measured against a "standard" rating made by experts on the same information. The direction of effect is predicted to be positive, in that the mean overall score of the intervention group will be closer to the standard than the control group.

  3. Participation (activation)

    Time frame: Week 3

    The patient activation measure (PAM) has been developed to measure activation. The instrument includes 4 domains; believing the patient role is important, having confidence and knowledge necessary to taking action, actually taking action to improve one's health, and staying the course under stress.

  4. Satisfaction with portal

    Time frame: Week 3

    We will also ask participants to comment on satisfaction with the portal after the other data collection has been submitted. This will be done based on the Honeycomb criteria which were also used in the qualitative evaluation. The honeycomb model is a well-renowned and much used instrument to measure user experience

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Oslo Metropolitan University

Other

Collaborators

  • Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services
  • University of Oslo

Registry information

Acronym: PREP

Important dates

Study start
2011
Primary completion
2011
Study completion
2011
First posted
Dec 24, 2010
Registry last updated
Dec 3, 2014

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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