Patients' perception of the usefulness of a question prompt sheet for advanced cancer patients when deciding the initial treatment: a randomized, controlled trial

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the patients' perception of the usefulness of a question prompt sheet (QPS) in facilitating the involvement of advanced cancer patients during consultation. Methods: Advanced cancer patients attending their first consultation after diagnosis were randomly assigned to the intervention group (received QPS and a hospital introduction sheet (HIS)) or the control group (received HIS only). Analysis was conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. The primary outcome measure was patient rating of the usefulness of the material(s) (numerical rating scale of 0–10). Results: Sixty-three advanced cancer patients (72.4% response rate) were enrolled and analyzed. Nearly three-quarters of patients in both groups read the material(s) before consultation. The rated usefulness of the material(s) for asking questions of physicians was significantly higher in the intervention group than in controls (4.4 ± 3.6 and 2.7 ± 2.8, respectively; p = 0.033). The mean score of the usefulness of the material(s) for understanding the treatment plan tended to be higher in the intervention group than in the controls (4.9 ± 3.6 and 3.3 ± 2.8; p = 0.051). The mean score of willingness to use the material(s) in the future was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the controls (5.3 ± 3.8 and 2.8 ± 2.8; p = 0.006). There were no significant differences between the groups in the average total number of questions asked by patients (median, 1.0; interquartile range in both groups, 2.0). Conclusions: QPS provided before oncology consultation may be useful for advanced cancer patients, on the other hand, it did not directly promote patient confidence to ask questions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.