Advanced Malignant Neoplasm, Caregiver, Physician
Conditions
Brief summary
This trial studies how well information materials work in helping communication between physicians and participants with cancer that has spread to other places in the body and their caregivers. Approaches that encourage participants to actively participate and ask appropriate questions during their visit may be important to enhance their understanding of their illness and empower them to make important decisions regarding their medical care.
Detailed description
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare patients' perception of helpfulness in communicating with their physicians between a question prompt sheet (QPS) and a general information sheet (GIS). SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare caregivers' perception of helpfulness in communicating with their physicians between the QPS and the GIS. II. To examine the level of patients' and caregivers' overall satisfaction with the consultation with the use of the QPS versus the GIS. III. To examine physicians' views about the information material and overall satisfaction with the use of the QPS versus the GIS. IV. To explore how the use of QPS affects the average speaking time of patient or physician during the consultation visit. V. To establish demographic and clinical predictors of patients' perception of helpfulness of a QPS. VI. To examine the overall patients' preference between the QPS and GIS in an open label phase. VII. To compare the change in patient anxiety state with the use of the QPS versus the GIS. VIII. To explore the factors underlying patients' preferences for the QPS or GIS. OUTLINE: Participants are randomized into 1 of 2 groups. GROUP I: Participants receive QPS and answer questions from physician. At follow up visit, participants receive both QPS and GIS. GROUP II: Participants receive GIS and answer questions from physician. At follow up visit, participants receive both QPS and GIS.
Interventions
OTHERInformational Intervention
Receive QPS
OTHERQuestionnaire Administration
Ancillary studies
Sponsors
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* (Patient participation) First outpatient consultation visit with a palliative care specialist * (Patient participation) Normal cognitive status, defined as a normal state of arousal and an absence of obvious clinical findings of confusion, memory deficits or concentration deficits, as determined by the patient's physician * (Patient participation) Ability to read and communicate in English * (Patient participation) Diagnosis of advanced cancer * (Patient participation) Signed written informed consent form * (Caregiver participation) accompanied the patient to the clinic visit * (Caregiver participation) is identified by the patient as someone who is actively involved in their overall care * (Caregiver participation) is able to read and communicate in English * (Caregiver participation) is willing to participate in the study and able to complete the questionnaires * (Physician participation) a palliative medicine specialist * (Physician participation) seeing the patient in consultation on the day of the study * (Physician participation) willing to participate in the study
Exclusion criteria
* Refusal to participate in the study
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Patients' perception of helpfulness (0-10 scale) in communicating with their physicians after the first consultation visit | Up to 3 years | Standard statistics including mean, standard deviation, median, range, frequency and percentage will be summarized for variables of interest, such as patients' demographics, clinical characteristics, anxiety state, patients'/caregivers' views about the information material, patients' satisfaction, physicians' views about the information material and consultation, patients' preferences for information, patient preferences for level of involvement in decision-making and patients' overall preference between the question prompt sheet (QPS) and the general information sheet (GIS) at the follow-up visit. Two sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used to compare continuous variables of interest between the QPS and the GIS. Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test, whichever appropriate, will be used to test for associations between categorical variables and helpfulness of information material. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Caregivers' perception of helpfulness in communicating with their physicians | Up to 3 years | Sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used. |
| Patients'/caregivers' overall satisfaction with the consultation | Up to 3 years | Sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used. |
| Physician's view/overall satisfaction about the information material | Up to 3 years | Sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used. |
| Average speaking time of patient or physician during the consultation visit affected by QPS | Up to 3 years | Two sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used to compare the average speaking time of patient or physician during the consultation visit. Also, general linear model will be applied to assess the effect of QPS on the average speaking time adjusting for clinically and/or statistically important factors. |
| Overall patients' preference between the QPS and GIS in an open label phase | Up to 3 years | Will estimate the preference of information material with 95% confidence intervals. Also, univariate/multicovariate logistic regression will be used to evaluate patients' demographic and clinical factors on overall patients' preference between QPS and GIS. |
| Change in patient anxiety state scores before and after consultation between the QPS and the GIS | Baseline up to 6 weeks | Sample t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test, whichever appropriate, will be used. |
| Demographic and clinical predictors of patients' perception of helpfulness of a QPS | Up to 3 years | Univariate/multicovariate logistic regression will be used to evaluate patients' demographic and clinical factors on patients' perception of helpfulness of QPS when dichotomizing the answer to the question 3 in the Patient/Caregiver Assessment Questionnaire ("Agree/Strongly Agree"=Helpful versus the rest). |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJoseph A Arthur
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Outcome results
None listed