The project is a two-arm randomized clinical trial to pilot the feasibility of a communication training intervention for primary care clinicians, linked to a community program referral, on use of the 5As to promote physical activity in underserved patients.
This study will focus on training clinicians to communicate effectively using the 5As and patient-centered communication skills (Aim 1). When implemented fully, the intervention will also include referral to a community fitness program. Clinicians will be randomly assigned to two groups (1 and 2). Group 1 will participate in the training intervention first; group 2 will act as a wait-list control for Group 1. The primary outcome, the effectiveness of the intervention on clinician use of the 5As during routine office visits, will be measured by examining 371 audio-recorded patient visits prior to, immediately, after, and 6 months after the clinician is trained. Secondary outcomes include whether the communication training intervention improved patients' perceived competence to adopt physical activity (Aim 2)and whether clinicians believe that the communication intervention addressed pertinent barriers to promoting exercise (Aim 3). Exploratory outcomes (Aim 4) will \[assess potential mediators of the intervention's effect, examine the effect of the intervention on actual physical activity levels in a subset of participants, and create a taxonomy of communication markers for each of the 5As.\]
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
325
This study will examine the effect of primary care clinicians' communication intervention linked to a community-based exercise program. We will use the 5As in discussion of physical activity in 371 office visits in an ethnically diverse, primarily low income patient population. Secondary and exploratory aims are to provide pilot information on \[feasibility and sustainability of the intervention from the patients' and clinicians' perspective and derive effect sizes on the intervention's effect on objective changes in physical activity in a subset of participants.
Westside Health Services
Rochester, New York, United States
Number of A's used per visit per discussion of physical activity
The mean 5A Score of patients from clinicians who complete the communicatin interventon will be higher thant the mean 5A Score of patients from physicisns that have not been trained. Analytic plan: Unadjusted analysis will use two-sample t-tests to compare means. Adjusted analyses will use linear mixed effects models as described in the Statistical Analysis section.
Time frame: 5 years
Patient-centered Communication Constructs
Patient survey; fifteen items.Assesses patient perceptions of providers' being autonomy supportive versus controlling. Measures participants' feelings of competence at carrying out a treament regimen. Scored by trained coder listening to audiorecorded visits. Clinicians survey; 20 items such as whether the clinician would recmmend the intervention to other clinicians.
Time frame: 5 years
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