Individualised follow-up booklets improve recall and satisfaction for cancer patients.

Aims: The New Zealand Provisional Standards of Service Provision for Cancer recommend providing patients with written information about their diagnosis, treatment and follow up. This project aimed to develop and evaluate a resource that could be used to provide essential information to patients who were nearing completion of the surgical treatment of their cancer.

Methods: The study compared patients with melanoma, colorectal and breast cancers who received standard discussion of their diagnosis, treatment and follow-up plan with cancer patients who received a discussion supported by an individualised follow-up booklet. Patients were interviewed using an over-the-phone questionnaire to assess their free recall and prompted recall of follow-up items, their perception of the level of information received and satisfaction with the communication of their follow-up plan.

Results: The group who received a booklet as part of discussion of their follow-up plan scored significantly higher on measures of free recall, prompted recall, satisfaction with the level of information provided and overall satisfaction than those who had a standard clinic discussion but did not receive a booklet. Free recall of two relevant items improved from 61% of patients to 91%. Prompted recall of at least one item improved from 77% of patients to 100%. The proportion of patients feeling they did not receive enough information fell from 25% to 5%. The proportion of patients scoring their satisfaction at >8/10 increased from 68% to 87%. All of these measures reached significance.

Conclusion: Individualised cancer follow-up booklets are a simple, low-cost and low-risk initiative that used in a New Zealand setting, was associated with improved patient recall and satisfaction with the follow-up information they received. This supports the benefit of providing participants with personalised written information, as recommended in the New Zealand Provisional Standards of Service Provision for Cancer.