Information in practice

Randomised controlled trial comparing effectiveness of touch screen system with leaflet for providing women with information on prenatal tests

Wendy Graham, director, ^a Pat Smith, honorary lecturer, ^b A Kamal, research fellow, ^a A Fitzmaurice, medical statistician, ^a N Smith, consultant obstetrician, ^b N Hamilton, director. ^c

^a Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Aberdeen AB25 2ZL, ^b Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, ^c Computer Assisted Learning Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD

Correspondence to: W Graham w.graham{at}abdn.ac.uk

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of touch screen system with information leaflet for providing women with information on prenatal tests.
Design: Randomised controlled trial; participants allocated to intervention group (given access to touch screen and leaflet information) or control group (leaflet information only).
Setting: Antenatal clinic in university teaching hospital.
Subjects: 875 women booking antenatal care.
Interventions: All participants received a leaflet providing information on prenatal tests. Women in the intervention arm also had access to touch screen information system in antenatal clinic.
Main outcome measures: Women's informed decision making on prenatal testing as measured by their uptake of and understanding of the purpose of specific tests; their satisfaction with information provided; and their levels of anxiety.
Results: All women in the trial had a good baseline knowledge of prenatal tests. Women in the intervention group did not show any greater understanding of the purpose of the tests than control women. However, uptake of detailed anomaly scans was significantly higher in intervention group than the control group (94% (351/375) v 87% (310/358), P=0.0014). Levels of anxiety among nulliparous women in intervention group declined significantly over time (P<0.001).
Conclusions: The touch screen seemed to convey no benefit over well prepared leaflets in improving understanding of prenatal tests among the pregnant women. It did, however, seem to reduce levels of anxiety and may be most effective for providing information to selected women who have a relevant adverse history or abnormal results from tests in their current pregnancy.