A review of clinical trials of advance care planning interventions adapted for limited health literacy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Mary Clare K. Houlihan ◽  
Masako Mayahara ◽  
Barbara Swanson ◽  
Louis Fogg

Abstract Objectives Advance care planning is vital for ensuring individuals receive end-of-life care that is consistent with their care preferences and improves patient quality of life and satisfaction with care; however, only 11% of Americans have discussed advance care planning with a healthcare provider. Individuals with limited health literacy are even less likely to participate in advance care planning due to difficulty comprehending complex health information. The purpose of this review was to identify randomized controlled trials designed to address the effects of limited health literacy on advance care planning, evaluate the quality of these studies, and summarize evaluation data to inform future studies. Methods This systematic review examined randomized controlled trials published from January 1997 to July 2020 using the PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases. Data were extracted and two reviewers independently evaluated the quality of studies using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool. Results The database search yielded 253 studies and five studies were included in the final review. Studies were conducted in mostly White patients in outpatient clinics in the United States. Researchers wrote text at lower reading levels, added images to materials, and created videos to enhance communication. Health literacy interventions increased participant knowledge, preference for comfort care, engagement, and care documentation; however, several methodological issues were identified, including baseline differences in treatment and control groups, issues with blinding, lack of valid and reliable outcome measures, and inappropriate statistical analyses. Significance of results More high-quality intervention studies that address the effects of limited health literacy on advance care planning in diverse populations and settings are needed. Future intervention studies should use reliable and valid instruments to measure advance care planning outcomes. Clinicians should use materials appropriate for their patients’ health literacy levels to address their advance care planning needs.

Author(s):  
Lente L. Kroon ◽  
◽  
Janneke van Roij ◽  
Ida J. Korfage ◽  
An K. L. Reyners ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose Advance Care Planning (ACP) is positively associated with the quality of care, but its impact on emotional functioning is ambiguous. This study investigated the association between perceptions of ACP involvement and emotional functioning in patients with advanced cancer. Methods This study analyzed baseline data of 1,001 patients of the eQuiPe study, a prospective, longitudinal, multicenter, observational study on quality of care and quality of life in patients with advanced cancer in the Netherlands. Patients with metastatic solid cancer were asked to participate between November 2017 and January 2020. Patients’ perceptions of ACP involvement were measured by three self-administered statements. Emotional functioning was measured by the EORTC-QLQ-C30. A linear multivariable regression analysis was performed while taking gender, age, migrant background, education, marital status, and symptom burden into account. Results The majority of patients (87%) reported that they were as much involved as they wanted to be in decisions about their future medical treatment and care. Most patients felt that their relatives (81%) and physicians (75%) were familiar with their preferences for future medical treatment and care. A positive association was found between patients’ perceptions of ACP involvement and their emotional functioning (b=0.162, p<0.001, 95%CI[0.095;0.229]) while controlling for relevant confounders. Conclusions Perceptions of involvement in ACP are positively associated with emotional functioning in patients with advanced cancer. Future studies are needed to further investigate the effect of ACP on emotional functioning. Trial registration number NTR6584 Date of registration: 30 June 2017 Implications for Cancer Survivors Patients’ emotional functioning might improve from routine discussions regarding goals of future care. Therefore, integration of ACP into palliative might be promising.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Mor ◽  
Angelo E Volandes ◽  
Roee Gutman ◽  
Constantine Gatsonis ◽  
Susan L Mitchell

Background/Aims Nursing homes are complex healthcare systems serving an increasingly sick population. Nursing homes must engage patients in advance care planning, but do so inconsistently. Video decision support tools improved advance care planning in small randomized controlled trials. Pragmatic trials are increasingly employed in health services research, although not commonly in the nursing home setting to which they are well-suited. This report presents the design and rationale for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial that evaluated the “real world” application of an Advance Care Planning Video Program in two large US nursing home healthcare systems. Methods PRagmatic trial Of Video Education in Nursing homes was conducted in 360 nursing homes (N = 119 intervention/N = 241 control) owned by two healthcare systems. Over an 18-month implementation period, intervention facilities were instructed to offer the Advance Care Planning Video Program to all patients. Control facilities employed usual advance care planning practices. Patient characteristics and outcomes were ascertained from Medicare Claims, Minimum Data Set assessments, and facility electronic medical record data. Intervention adherence was measured using a Video Status Report embedded into electronic medical record systems. The primary outcome was the number of hospitalizations/person-day alive among long-stay patients with advanced dementia or cardiopulmonary disease. The rationale for the approaches to facility randomization and recruitment, intervention implementation, population selection, data acquisition, regulatory issues, and statistical analyses are discussed. Results The large number of well-characterized candidate facilities enabled several unique design features including stratification on historical hospitalization rates, randomization prior to recruitment, and 2:1 control to intervention facilities ratio. Strong endorsement from corporate leadership made randomization prior to recruitment feasible with 100% participation of facilities randomized to the intervention arm. Critical regulatory issues included minimal risk determination, waiver of informed consent, and determination that nursing home providers were not engaged in human subjects research. Intervention training and implementation were initiated on 5 January 2016 using corporate infrastructures for new program roll-out guided by standardized training elements designed by the research team. Video Status Reports in facilities’ electronic medical records permitted “real-time” adherence monitoring and corrective actions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Virtual Research Data Center allowed for rapid outcomes ascertainment. Conclusion We must rigorously evaluate interventions to deliver more patient-focused care to an increasingly frail nursing home population. Video decision support is a practical approach to improve advance care planning. PRagmatic trial Of Video Education in Nursing homes has the potential to promote goal-directed care among millions of older Americans in nursing homes and establish a methodology for future pragmatic randomized controlled trials in this complex healthcare setting.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1176.2-1176
Author(s):  
E. Eraslan ◽  
R. Bilici Salman ◽  
H. Satiş ◽  
A. Avanoglu Guler ◽  
H. Karadeniz ◽  
...  

Background:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown etiology that can affect any organ of the body. SLE is associated with adverse effects on both health and non-health-related quality of life (HRQOL and non-HRQOL). Lupus PRO is a patient reported outcome measure that has been validated in many languages. It has 44 items that cover both HRQOL and non-HRQOL (1). Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Multiple studies indicate that people with limited health literacy have worse health status and higher rates of hospitalization (2).Objectives:We aimed to evaluate the relationship between the LLDAS (Lupus Low Disease Activity State) criteria and the Lupus PRO test, as well as the health literacy status of lupus patients.Methods:83 SLE patients (94% women) were included in the study. We performed Lupus PRO and the European Health Literacy Survey tests during the routine follow-up visits of lupus patients to our rheumatology outpatient clinic and admissions to rheumatology inpatient clinic. Available clinical data on medical records were obtained, physician global assessments (PGA) were recorded by the attending physician.Results:LLDAS criteria strongly and inversely correlated with the total score, as well as the mood subunit of the Lupus PRO. Similarly, it also significantly inversely correlated with the body appearence and goals subunits. Health literacy status of the patients did not correlate with their LLDAS scores, ie their disease activities.Conclusion:Our results suggest that lupus disease activity, assessed by LLDAS criteria, significantly correlates with measures of quality of life, spesicifically Lupus PRO test, but not with health literacy status. Further studies are needed to evaluate if health literacy is related with damage, hospitalization or mortality associated with lupus.References:[1]Jolly M, Pickard AS, Block JA, Kumar RB, Mikolaitis RA, Wilke CT, et al., editors. Disease-specific patient reported outcome tools for systemic lupus erythematosus. Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism; 2012: Elsevier.[2]Paasche-Orlow MK, Parker RM, Gazmararian JA, Nielsen-Bohlman LT, Rudd RR. The prevalence of limited health literacy. Journal of general internal medicine. 2005;20(2):175-84.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1001-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary K. Seligman ◽  
Frances F. Wang ◽  
Jorge L. Palacios ◽  
Clifford C. Wilson ◽  
Carolyn Daher ◽  
...  

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