A randomised controlled trial of a question prompt list for palliative care patients and their caregivers

A randomised controlled trial of a question prompt list (QPL) for palliative care consultations, to evaluate the effect of the QPL on the total number of patient/caregiver questions during the consultation

Status

Completed

Phases

Phase 3

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12605000301662

Enrollment

160

Registered

2005-09-05

Start date

2002-10-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

Patients being referred for palliative care have high levels of anxiety and significant informational and emotional needs. Previous research suggests these needs are not always met. Provision of a question prompt list (QPL) to cancer patients before initial oncology consultations has been found to promote patient question asking, reduce anxiety, improve recall and shorten the consultation. We have developed a QPL specifically for palliative care patients. We will study the effects of providing patients with this QPL before their consultation with a palliative care doctor.

Interventions

Provision of a question prompt list (QPL) 20 minutes before palliative care consultation with physician endorsement of the QPL during consultation.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Educational / counselling / training

Masking

Open (masking not used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1) Diagnosis of advanced progressive life-limiting illness; 2) English-speaking; 3) able and well enough to read QPL and complete questionnaires; 4) seeing PC physician for either 1st, 2nd or 3rd consultation.

Exclusion criteria

No exclusion criteria

Outcome results