Last week, we launched the new patient information pages on the BHD Foundation website. The information has been rewritten with the principles of health literacy in mind, and we hope these will be of greater use to patients and their families. This week’s blog discusses a study which demonstrates the value of providing well-written patient information.
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a paediatric genetic syndrome which causes tumours to form in the brain, eyes, heart, skin, lungs and kidneys. There is no cure for TSC, but correct management of the individual symptoms can greatly improve health outcomes. Thus, educating care givers – usually the child’s parents – can improve patients’ quality of life.
Samia et al. (2014) tested whether providing parents with written information in addition to the information given in person at the TSC clinic in Cape Town, South Africa, improved parents’ understanding of TSC. 21 parents took part in the study, their baseline understanding of TSC was determined, and parents were split into two groups at random. The first group received a written leaflet about TSC to take home after their child’s appointment, while the second group did not. Parents’ knowledge of TSC was assessed 3 months later at their child’s next clinic appointment. Leaflets were based on information available on the TS Alliance website, and translated into both Xhosa and Afrikaans.
The study found that parents’ understanding of TSC increased by 20% in the group who received the written leaflet, compared with only 3% in the group who did not. The difference in knowledge was particularly striking in those parents who had completed between 8 and 11 years of education. The level of knowledge improved less in those parents who had over 11 years of education, suggesting that their baseline level of understanding was already high.
However, the study also found that written information was not useful to those parents who had not completed at least 8 years of education, and should be supplemented with verbal counseling. These appointments should be in a more relaxed setting, as previous studies have shown that in the formal setting of a doctor’s appointment, patient retention of information is low.
In this study, the majority of caregivers who took part in the study were female (18/21), and for most the clinic was their primary source of information about TSC. However, there are countries where women do not receive the same level of education as men, but are still likely to be the main caregiver of a disabled child. In these cases, health information providers will need to predominantly cater for a low literacy audience.
Additionally, in the UK, the internet is the primary source of health information for 87% of people, meaning that information providers should predominantly produce online content, and concentrate less on developing hard copy pamphlets to distribute at clinics. Thus, information providers need to understand their audience and have a flexible approach. This is especially important for those writing rare disease information, where fewer information resources are available and information providers are more likely to be generating information that is used internationally.
The link between improved health literacy and health outcomes is well-documented (Berkman et al., 2011): greater understanding of a disease leads people to seek diagnosis earlier and to greater compliance to treatment regimens. In turn this leads to improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. Therefore, providing patients and caregivers with the right information, at the right time, and in the right format is an issue of public health.
- Berkman ND, Sheridan SL, Donahue KE, Halpern DJ, & Crotty K (2011). Low health literacy and health outcomes: an updated systematic review. Ann Intern Med, 155 (2), 97-107. PMID: 21768583
- Samia P, Donald KA, Schlegel B, & Wilmshurst JM (2014). Parental Understanding of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. J Child Neurol. PMID: 25414235
www.bhdsyndrome.org – the primary online resource for anyone interested in BHD Syndrome.