Asking questions: the effect of a brief intervention in community health centers on patient activation.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of a patient activation intervention (PAI) focused on building question formulation skills that was delivered to patients in community health centers prior to their physician visit.


METHODS
Level of patient activation and patient preferred role were examined using the patient activation measure (PAM) and the patient preference for control (PPC) measure.


RESULTS
More of the 252 patients evaluated were at lower levels of activation (PAM levels 1 or 2) than U.S. population norms before the intervention. Paired-samples t-test revealed a statistically significant increase from pre-intervention to post-visit PAM scores. One-third of participants moved from lower levels of activation to higher levels (PAM levels 3 or 4) post-intervention. Patients preferring a more passive role had lower initial PAM scores and greater increases in their post-intervention PAM scores than did those who preferred a more active role.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients exposed to the PAI demonstrated significant improvement on a measure of activation. The PAI may be useful in helping patients prepare for more effective encounters with their physicians.


CONCLUSIONS
The PAI was feasible to deliver in the health center setting and may be a useful method for activating low-income, racial/ethnic minority patient populations.
Deen
Darwin
D
Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, The City College of New York, New York, NY, USA. ddeen@ccny.cuny.edu
Lu
Wei-Hsin
WH
Rothstein
Dan
D
Santana
Luz
L
Gold
Marthe R
MR
D000328:Adult; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003142:Communication; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012648:Self Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires