Use of Video-Based Patient Education to Modify Health Behaviors

Abstract

Background: Video-enhanced patient education may help to standardize educational content and improve patients’ retention of instructions when compared with current written/verbal modalities of patient education. The purpose of this project was to investigate the impact of understanding pulmonary disease and medications in those receiving video-enhanced instruction compared with those who did not. A secondary evaluation comparing comprehension of pulmonary disease and medications improve after receiving instruction of any kind was conducted Methods: In the past, patients at a large, tertiary medical center were offered discussion supplemented with written forms of education. Although the literature implies that video-enhanced learning would lead to better comprehension of the information, the Pulmonary Disease Navigators did not have consistent access to video content. Through a quality improvement project, the navigators were provided access to video content to supplement the standard written/verbal education. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients (n = 62) consented to participate in this study. Inclusion criteria was patients >18 years of age with no cognitive impairments to participating. They were randomized into two groups: those that received supplemental video-based instruction (n = 32) or those who received standard written/verbal education without videos (n = 30). An electronic link was provided to the patients who consented to participate and was utilized to determine their satisfaction and comprehension of the materials presented. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the scores for understanding pulmonary disease between the two groups (P = .36). There was a significant difference between the two groups in understanding of medications (P < .001). In comparing all patients before and after the educational interventions, there was a significant difference in pre- and post-understanding of pulmonary disease (P < .001) and in pre- and post-understanding of medications (P < .001). Conclusions: Although there was no significant difference in understanding of COPD when video-enhanced education was used, there was a significant difference in understanding of medications in the group that received video-enhanced education. Additionally, education provided was beneficial, as there was a significant improvement in learning between pre- and post- scores for all types of modalities. Further research would be beneficial.