One in eight women will likely develop breast cancer in her lifetime and will be faced with making medical decisions related to the treatment of the disease. While many of these women will be eligible for participation in a clinical trial, the majority of them will not be enrolled. Researchers have identified institutional, medical, financial, physician and patient factors that facilitate or inhibit acceptance of clinical trials. The goal of this study is to use theories and methods from the field of persuasive communications to investigate the effects of three physician (source) variables (physician enthusiasm for the trial, physician affiliation, and type of physician-patient relationship) and a variety of patient (receiver) factors (previous experience with cancer, state, trait and cancer-specific anxiety, depression, optimism, and preferred level of treatment involvement) on acceptance of the clinical trial, information processing, information recall, physician evaluation, and affective responses. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model as the conceptual framework, the study will employ a two- phase design. In phase one, a series of video recorded communications will be developed and tested for their ability to induce the desired manipulations of the physician variables. Eight focus groups will be conducted to test the videos (four with former breast cancer patients and four with women who have never had cancer) and the videos will be revised if necessary. During phase two, a 2x2x2 factorial design will be employed with 24 women per cell for two groups of women (breast cancer and non-breast cancer). During this phase, women will complete (extensive pre- and post-message questionnaires to assess patient factors and the outcome variables.) The specific aims are to: (1) develop video recorded messages that adequately depict the experimental manipulations (phase one); (2) investigate the main and interactive effects of physician and patient factors on the acceptance, comprehension, and interpretation of clinical trials (phase two); (3) investigate the feasibility of this research approach for further studies on physician-patient communication and informed patient involvement in clinical trial decision-making.
| Curbow, Barbara; Fogarty, Linda A; McDonnell, Karen A et al. (2006) The role of physician characteristics in clinical trial acceptance: testing pathways of influence. J Health Commun 11:199-218 |
| Curbow, Barbara; Fogarty, Linda A; McDonnell, Karen et al. (2004) Can a brief video intervention improve breast cancer clinical trial knowledge and beliefs? Soc Sci Med 58:193-205 |
