The Effect of the Educational Brochure Versus the Video on Disease Knowledge in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common pediatric rheumatic disease. Patient education plays an important role in the management of such chronic disease. Although JIA educational materials are available, patients may not reach them due to limited health literacy or limited access. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness between a brochure and a video in JIA-related knowledge.Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial study. 100 JIA patients or their caregivers, whose JIA patients were not graduated at least 8thgrade were randomized into two groups with 50 subjects per arms. The intervention groups were reading the brochure (n=50) or watching the content matched video (n=50). Fifteen multiple-choice knowledge questionnaires about JIA were answered before, immediately after intervention and at follow-up 4 weeks later. Demographic data and disease activity were recorded.Results: In this study, age of patients in the brochure and video group were 13.2 ± 4.6 years and 14.3 ± 5.1 years, respectively. Most of them were female (57%), diagnosed systemic JIA (37%) and were in active disease status (48%). There was no difference in all baseline demographic data. About 70% of patients had low average monthly family income per household. More than 50% of JIA graduated below secondary school. The mean correct score rates prior to the intervention were 51% and 56% in the brochure group and video group, respectively (p-value 0.28). Post-test total knowledge scores showed that participants in the video group had better knowledge than participants in the brochure group (p-value 0.003). In four-week post-test, both groups had statistically significantly lower total knowledge scores (the brochure 73%, the video 78%) when compared to the immediate post-test score. Moreover, there was no significant difference in four-week post-test scores between two groups (p-value 0.141).Conclusion: The JIA educational video was more effective than the pictorial brochure in improving immediate JIA related knowledge. However, the long-term retention of JIA related knowledge did not show the significant difference between both educational tools. To maintain JIA disease knowledge, patients should be given the knowledge of JIA disease repeatedly.Trial registration: Thaiclinicaltrials.org 06/03/2020, TCTR20200310004, prospectively registered.