Evaluating Materials to Educate Patients About Cervical Dysplasia

Women with an abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smear are typically referred for a colposcopy and
biopsy. However, data collected by research groups and others shows that women with abnormal
Pap smear results have limited understanding of the meaning of the results, the causes of
cervical dysplasia, and the procedures used to evaluate and treat it. This situation is
further complicated by the fact that many patients, particularly those with less education,
have low health literacy in general. This means that much of the existing patient education
materials will likely be inappropriate or ineffective for this group. One approach is to
develop materials at low literacy levels; however, it is not known whether such materials
will be provide sufficient information and be effective for patients with high health
literacy.

The long term goal is to study the importance of tailoring patient education materials to
colposcopy patients' level of health literacy. To this end, researchers have developed two
educational brochures with approximately the same information, but which vary in their health
literacy (readability) level. As a first step in this research, researchers propose to
present these materials to colposcopy patients returning for colposcopy visits to assess
changes in knowledge and obtain patient feedback on the brochures.

The proposed pilot study represents the first step at evaluating the patient education
materials and determining the patient's level of understanding of what they receive.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Over 18 years old;

2. Follow up colposcopy clinic patients who completed a colposcopy and treatment (if
indicated) at an earlier date;

3. Able to communicate in English

Exclusion Criteria: None