Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Center for Alzheimer Research, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Medical Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC (location AMC), PO Box 22660, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Medical Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC (location AMC), PO Box 22660, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Patient Educ Couns. 2022 Jun;105(6):1634-1641. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2021.10.015. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
Experimental vignette designs are used to systematically test the effects of medical communication. We tested the impact of two methodological choices -gender congruence and vignette modality- on analogue patient reported outcomes.
In an online experiment using a vignette portraying an oncological bad news consultation, we manipulated (1) gender congruence between the analogue and the vignette patient, and (2) vignette modality, i.e., text, audio, or video. Cancer-naïve students acting as analogue patients (N = 209, 22 ± 3 years old, 75% F) were assigned one randomly-selected vignette variant and completed questionnaires. Using 3 × 2 (repeated-measures) ANOVAs, we tested main and interaction effects of gender congruence and modality on self-reported engagement, recall, trust, satisfaction and anxiety.
We found no main effects of gender congruence or modality on any of the outcomes, nor any interaction effects between modality and congruence.
Our results indicate that researchers may needlessly create gender-congruent vignettes at considerable cost and effort. Also, the currently assumed superiority of videos over other modalities for experimental vignette-based research may be inaccurate.
Although further testing in an offline format and among different populations is warranted, decisions regarding gender congruence and modality for future vignette-based studies should be based primarily on their specific aims.
实验小插曲设计用于系统地测试医学沟通的效果。我们测试了两种方法选择——性别一致性和小插曲模式——对模拟患者报告结果的影响。
在一项使用描述肿瘤学坏消息咨询的小插曲的在线实验中，我们操纵了（1）模拟患者和小插曲患者之间的性别一致性，以及（2）小插曲模式，即文本、音频或视频。作为模拟患者的癌症新手学生（N=209，22±3 岁，75%为女性）随机分配到一个小插曲变体，并完成了问卷调查。使用 3×2（重复测量）方差分析，我们测试了性别一致性和模式对自我报告的参与度、记忆力、信任度、满意度和焦虑度的主要和交互效应。
我们没有发现性别一致性或模式对任何结果有主要影响，也没有发现模式和一致性之间的任何交互效应。
我们的结果表明，研究人员可能不必要地以相当大的成本和努力创建性别一致的小插曲。此外，目前假设视频相对于其他模式在基于实验小插曲的研究中具有优势可能是不准确的。
尽管需要在离线格式和不同人群中进行进一步测试，但对于未来基于小插曲的研究的性别一致性和模式决策应主要基于其具体目标。
