PURPOSE: The initial breast cancer genetic counseling visit is mainly educational, with large amounts of relatively standard information and little counselee participation. Counselors might provide more counselee-specific information if counselees would participate more. A pre-visit website providing computer-tailored information and a question prompt sheet (QPS) might help counselees to pursue a more active role. METHODS: Counselees were randomized to receive usual care (UC) or UC plus the pre-visit website. The QPS questions were sent to the counselor before the visit. All counselees completed a baseline questionnaire, and visits were videotaped. RESULTS: Intervention-group counselees (n = 102) did not ask more questions than UC-group counselees (n = 90). However, counselees in the intervention group more often shared their agenda (B = 10.37; confidence interval (CI) 2.68-18.06; P = 0.01), directed the communication (B = 0.41; CI 0.28-0.53; P = 0.01), and paraphrased the counselors' words (B = 5.18; CI 0.43-9.92; P = 0.03). Counselors introduced and answered the QPS questions. As a result, they provided more information about the topics of these questions, and the information provided was more specific to whether there was an indication for DNA testing. CONCLUSION: A pre-visit website with QPS helped counselees to communicate more assertively. As a result, the information provided was more counselee specific, without affecting the visit duration.
PURPOSE: The initial breast cancer genetic counseling visit is mainly educational, with large amounts of relatively standard information and little counselee participation. Counselors might provide more counselee-specific information if counselees would participate more. A pre-visit website providing computer-tailored information and a question prompt sheet (QPS) might help counselees to pursue a more active role. METHODS: Counselees were randomized to receive usual care (UC) or UC plus the pre-visit website. The QPS questions were sent to the counselor before the visit. All counselees completed a baseline questionnaire, and visits were videotaped. RESULTS: Intervention-group counselees (n = 102) did not ask more questions than UC-group counselees (n = 90). However, counselees in the intervention group more often shared their agenda (B = 10.37; confidence interval (CI) 2.68-18.06; P = 0.01), directed the communication (B = 0.41; CI 0.28-0.53; P = 0.01), and paraphrased the counselors' words (B = 5.18; CI 0.43-9.92; P = 0.03). Counselors introduced and answered the QPS questions. As a result, they provided more information about the topics of these questions, and the information provided was more specific to whether there was an indication for DNA testing. CONCLUSION: A pre-visit website with QPS helped counselees to communicate more assertively. As a result, the information provided was more counselee specific, without affecting the visit duration.
Authors: Tara Schmidlen; Amy C Sturm; Shelly Hovick; Laura Scheinfeldt; J Scott Roberts; Lindsey Morr; Joseph McElroy; Amanda E Toland; Michael Christman; Julianne M O'Daniel; Erynn S Gordon; Barbara A Bernhardt; Kelly E Ormond; Kevin Sweet Journal: J Genet Couns Date: 2018-02-19 Impact factor: 2.537
Authors: Salma Shickh; Sara A Rafferty; Marc Clausen; Rita Kodida; Chloe Mighton; Seema Panchal; Justin Lorentz; Thomas Ward; Nicholas Watkins; Christine Elser; Andrea Eisen; June C Carroll; Emily Glogowski; Kasmintan A Schrader; Jordan Lerner-Ellis; Raymond H Kim; David Chitayat; Cheryl Shuman; Yvonne Bombard Journal: Genet Med Date: 2021-03-02 Impact factor: 8.864