Improving health education through a patient-clinician partnered intervention in the patient with genitourinary cancer.

Abstract

TPS525 Background: Health literacy is associated with health equity, acts as a cornerstone in optimizing patient care and is associated with improved quality of life. The objective of this project is to improve health literacy in patients with genitourinary cancer through a patient-clinician partnered education intervention. Synthesis of Literature Utilization of a targeted education program delivered in-person using voice instruction demonstrated the greatest significant effect on health-related quality of life; the additional of illustration and text further improved this metric. Optimal health related quality of life is associated with greater comprehension of disease and adherence to treatment plan, heightened self-efficacy, and improvement in patient-provider communication. Methods: The intervention is a patient-clinician partnered written form used in conjunction with verbal instruction. The patient documents reasons for the visit and primary concerns to be addressed prior to the provider encounter during the visit. The Action Plan then records the treatment plan and next steps discussed during the visit. A Confidence Ruler acts as a visual representation of patient confidence in the plan of care, acting as a prompt to the provider to ensure adequate information transfer at conclusion of the visit. The patient then retains the written form highlighting the care discussion for reference and recall as needed. Evaluation A five-point Likert test will measure change pre/post intervention; data will be analyzed in a cohort looking at improvement in overall mean. The HRQOL-14 and the CHLT-6 modified will be used to assess baseline health related quality of life and health literacy respectively followed by cohort analysis of the means to determine efficacy outcomes. The primary outcome is to improve health literacy in all patients within a genitourinary oncology clinic population using is a written tool in concurrence with verbal instruction with secondary focus on improving health-related quality of life in the same population. Recommendation Health literacy must be assessed each visit to optimize patient care outcomes and quality of life. Targeted health education must be patient specific and titrated to individual health literacy needs.