Improving Decision-Making for Low Health Literate Prostate CA Patients

March 23, 2023 updated by: Northwell Health
This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether Healium (designed to target preference elicitation) is as efficacious as Healing Choices (a comprehensive education and decision tool) in improving outcomes for decision-making and emotional quality of life.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background: Elicitation of patients' preferences is an integral part of shared decision making, the recommended approach for prostate cancer decision making. However, existing decision aids for this population do not specifically focus on patients' preferences. Healium is a brief interactive web-based decision aid that aims to elicit patient's treatment preferences and is designed for a low health literate population. This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether Healium (designed to target preference elicitation) is as efficacious as Healing Choices (a comprehensive education and decision tool) in improving outcomes for decision-making and emotional quality of life.

Method: Patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer who had not yet made a treatment decision were randomly assigned to the brief Healium intervention or Healing Choices, an extensive decision aid previously developed by our group that serves as a virtual information center on prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. Assessments were completed at baseline, 6-weeks and 3-months post-baseline, and included decisional outcomes (decisional conflict, satisfaction with decision, preparation for decision-making), and emotional quality of life (anxiety/tension and depression), along with demographics, comorbidities, and health literacy.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

327

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • Manhasset, New York, United States, 11030
        • Northwell Health
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19111
        • Fox Chase Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • a diagnosis of localized prostate cancer and eligible for all treatment options (ie., surgery, radiation, active surveillance);
  • had not yet made a treatment decision or begun treatment; and
  • have basic proficiency (grade school level) in reading English.

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Healium
Healium is a web-based platform that employs a user-centric design and aims to appeal to a low health literate population. It features a simple language and layout, a large font size, contrasting text and background colors, bright color palette, and use of short labels and headings to describe content.
Behavioral: Healium
web-based platform to elicit patients' preferences about prostate cancer treatment and designed for low health literature populations
No Intervention: Comparison (Healing Choices)
The Healing Choices program represents a virtual health center that patients visit to obtain disease and treatment-related information. The software was designed to be open to exploration with an intuitive layout, without restrictions in terms of order of access. Information is stored in virtual rooms, such as a library, a conference room showing videos by survivors who discuss their approach to treatment, and physician offices containing videos of physicians representing different treatment specialties. All information was extensively vetted by health education experts of the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Services (CIS).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Decisional Conflict Scale
Time Frame: 6 weeks post-baseline
Decisional Conflict was measured with the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), a well-validated scale consisting of 16 items that assess four dimensions: informed, clarity, uncertainty, and support. The response ranges are on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. To come up with a total score, the 16 items are summed, divided by 16 and multiplied by 25. Scores range from 0 (no decisional conflict) to 100 (extremely high decisional conflict).
6 weeks post-baseline
Decisional Conflict Scale
Time Frame: 3 months post-baseline
Decisional Conflict was measured with the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), a well-validated scale consisting of 16 items that assess four dimensions: informed, clarity, uncertainty, and support. The response ranges are on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. To come up with a total score, the 16 items are summed, divided by 16 and multiplied by 25. Scores range from 0 (no decisional conflict) to 100 (extremely high decisional conflict).
3 months post-baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Profile of Mood States- Short form
Time Frame: 6 weeks post-baseline
The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is a psychological rating scale used to assess transient, distinct mood states. It is made of subscales for depression, tension, fatigue, confusion, anger, vigor and esteem-related affect. It consists of 30 items, each measured on a 5-point scale ranging from "not at all" to "extremely". A total score is calculated by summing the totals for the negative scales and subtracting the totals for the positive scales.
6 weeks post-baseline
Profile of Mood States-Short form
Time Frame: 3 months post-baseline
The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is a psychological rating scale used to assess transient, distinct mood states. It is made of subscales for depression, tension, fatigue, confusion, anger, vigor and esteem-related affect. It consists of 30 items, each measured on a 5-point scale ranging from "not at all" to "extremely". A total score is calculated by summing the totals for the negative scales and subtracting the totals for the positive scales.
3 months post-baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Northwell Health

Collaborators

American Cancer Society, Inc.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 8, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

April 5, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 5, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2023

Last Verified

March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 15-192

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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