Video intervention persuasive for screening recommendations

(HealthDay)—A novel video intervention can alter the screening intentions of a target audience, in line with evidence-based recommendations, according to a study published in the January/February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Barry G. Saver, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, and colleagues evaluated novel decision aids designed to help patients trust and accept controversial, evidence-based U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations about prostate cancer and mammography screening. The authors created recorded vignettes of physician-patient discussions about screening, accompanied by illustrative slides. Twenty-seven men aged 50 to 74 years and 35 women aged 40 to 49 years saw a video intervention and a paper-based decision aid intervention in a randomized crossover study.

The researchers found that 69 percent of men and 86 percent of women reported wanting screening at baseline, with 31 and 6 percent, respectively, unsure. On a 3-point yes, unsure, no scale, the mean change was −0.93 and −0.50 (both P < 0.001) for men and women, respectively, after seeing the video interventions, and 0.0 and −0.06 (P = 0.75), respectively, after the paper-based decision intervention. At the end of the study, 33 and 49 percent of men and women wanted screening, and 11 and 20 percent, respectively, were unsure.

"Our approach needs further testing but may provide a model for helping patients to consider and accept evidence-based, counterintuitive recommendations," the authors write.

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