Evaluation of an Advance Care Planning Activity: Feasibility Testing for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Chronic Disease Clinical Trial

Official title: Evaluation of an Advance Care Planning Activity: Feasibility Testing for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The overarching goal of this project is to facilitate engagement of individuals in effective advance care planning (ACP). Our specific objective is to conduct a randomized, controlled trial to determine whether playing a structured conversation game will increase the likelihood that participants will complete advance directives and perform other ACP behaviors compared to those who are provided with only standard ACP educational materials.

Clinical Trial Description

Our central hypothesis is that having ACP conversations in a non-threatening and enjoyable game format will stimulate participants to engage in additional ACP behaviors including completion of ADs. We will use the ACP Engagement Survey to measure readiness to perform ACP, which includes measures of the "stage of change" for performing ACP behaviors.

The proposed study has two specific aims:

Aim 1. To determine whether individuals who play a conversation game are more likely to subsequently complete an online AD (called 'Making Your Wishes Known'; MYWK) compared to individuals who receive standard information about ACP. Our hypothesis is that playing a conversation game will result in a higher AD completion rate (compared to control) in the three months following the intervention.

Aim 2. To identify which participant and/or conversation-related factors influence movement along the stages of change continuum with respect to ACP behaviors (discussing end-of-life wishes with families or clinicians and then completing ADs). Our hypotheses are that: H1) the game intervention will lead to higher quality conversations than the control; and H2) participants whose conversations consist of high-quality ACP discussions will be more likely to progress toward enacting ACP behaviors (as measured by the ACP Engagement Survey score) than those participants whose conversations consist of low-quality discussions. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Caregivers
• Chronic Disease

• NCT number: NCT02619370
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 2016
• Completion date: September 2016