Optimising Consultation Summaries to Promote Good Health

Type1 Diabetes Clinical Trial

— ONSET  

Official title:

Optimising Consultation Summaries to Promote Good Health/Views of Adolescents Attending Diabetes Clinic

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04002557
• Other study ID #: 18IC4465
• Status: Completed
• Start date: May 31, 2019
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: April 2024
• Source: Imperial College London
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Patient participation in decision making about their care promotes patient satisfaction and confidence. Further more, allowing patients to see letters written about them enables trust, encourages patients to be involved in decision making process and allow patient understanding.

Little is known about how young people value these letters in the same way. Only one brief questionnaire study focused on adolescent views and found that young people wished to receive consultation summaries.

This research aims explore the views of adolescent patients related to consultation summaries that they receive following a doctor's appointment. The investigator will use patients attending a specialist diabetes clinic as our cohort and conduct a qualitative study using focus groups.

Description:

Patient participation in decision making processes about their care promotes patient satisfaction and confidence. As part of this, allowing patients to see letters written about them enables trust, encourages patients to be involved in decision making process and allow patient understanding. Given this, the 2000 NHS plan made it a requirement that all medical correspondence between health professionals is shared with patients.

It is estimated that 40-80% of information discussed during a consultation is forgotten immediately. Written summaries have shown to be an effective method of improving patient recall of information by 20.8%.

The literature on the benefits/disadvantages of consultation summaries is largely focused on adult patients with little research done to explore the views of adolescent population. Where the patient is a child, the literature is only focussed on parents of children and not the children themselves. Limited research has shown that parents/care givers report clinic letters being useful in assisting with better understanding and management of their child's condition.

Little is known about how young people value these letters in the same way. Only one brief questionnaire study focused on adolescent views and found that young people wished to receive consultation summaries.

Adolescence is an important time of an individual's life. This is the time when many independent health behaviours are established. During adolescence, young people start showing more interest in their own health and often wish to participate in decision making processes regarding their care. The role of health workers at this stage is to appreciate young people as individuals . Clinic summaries addressed directly to young people might play an important role in assisting with establishment of health behaviours and promoting good health in young people.

The aim of this research is to understand the views of adolescent patients on consultation summaries and identify factors can improve these summaries and subsequently their health and well-being.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 9
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: August 31, 2019
• Gender: All
• Age group: 12 Years to 18 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents aged 12-18 years attending UCLH adolescent diabetes outpatient clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

• Young people who cannot speak English (effective communication with colleagues during the study is the major aspect of valid data collection)

• Young people who refuse to participate in focus group discussions

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Diabetes Mellitus
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1
• Type1 Diabetes

Intervention

Other:
• Interview-Questionnaire
Questionnaire

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	University College London Hospital	London

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Imperial College London

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

References & Publications (8)

A new series starts: the ABC of adolescence. (2005). BMJ, 330(7486).

Bartle DG, Diskin L, Finlay F. Copies of clinic letters to the family. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Nov;89(11):1032-3. doi: 10.1136/adc.2004.051938. — View Citation

Baxter S, Farrell K, Brown C, Clarke J, Davies H. Where have all the copy letters gone? A review of current practice in professional-patient correspondence. Patient Educ Couns. 2008 May;71(2):259-64. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2007.12.002. Epub 2008 Jan 25. — View Citation

Chan Y, Irish JC, Wood SJ, Rotstein LE, Brown DH, Gullane PJ, Lockwood GA. Patient education and informed consent in head and neck surgery. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2002 Nov;128(11):1269-74. doi: 10.1001/archotol.128.11.1269. — View Citation

Harris C, Boaden R. Copying letters to patients: the view of patients and health professionals. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2006 Jul;11(3):133-40. doi: 10.1258/135581906777641712. — View Citation

Kessels RP. Patients' memory for medical information. J R Soc Med. 2003 May;96(5):219-22. doi: 10.1177/014107680309600504. No abstract available. — View Citation

Lawton J, Waugh N, Noyes K, Barnard K, Harden J, Bath L, Stephen J, Rankin D. Improving communication and recall of information in paediatric diabetes consultations: a qualitative study of parents' experiences and views. BMC Pediatr. 2015 Jun 10;15:67. doi: 10.1186/s12887-015-0388-6. — View Citation

Waterston T, San Lazaro C. Sending parents outpatient letters about their children: parents' and general practitioners' views. Qual Health Care. 1994 Sep;3(3):142-6. doi: 10.1136/qshc.3.3.142. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Number of Participants That Completed Interviews About Consultation Summaries They Were Receiving	The aim of this research is to understand the views of adolescent patients on consultation summaries and identify factors can improve these summaries and subsequently their health and well-being.	1 month

External Links

•   Good Practice Guidelines - Department of Health, 2004