The purpose of this investigation is to test an intervention to educate cancer patients about pain and pain management.
The specific aim of the project is to determine whether the use of Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) is more effective than the same information presented in printed form. The sample will consist of 200 subjects, age 12 and older, who have the diagnosis of cancer and identify pain as a major factor in their lives. Subjects will be obtained from inpatient and outpatient departments of a Veterans' Administration facility, a 1,000 bed teaching hospital, and three hospitals from the private sector. One group will receive printed information on pain and pain management. The second group will receive the printed information and view a CD-I disc on pain and pain management. The outcome measure will be the knowledge of pain and evaluated with a pretest and post-test design. Specific patient variables that influence pain will be collected. A Friedman's two-way analysis of variance will be applied to post-test scores to determine differences in learning between the two groups. Within treatment groups, patient and pain treatment variables will be correlated with differences in measures of improved pain control.
