A pre-visit website with question prompt sheet for counselees facilitates communication in the first consultation for breast cancer genetic counseling: findings from a randomized controlled trial

PurposeThe initial breast cancer genetic counseling visit is mainly educational, with large amounts of relatively standard information and little counselee participation. Counselors might provide more counselee-specific information if counselees would participate more. A pre-visit website providing computer-tailored information and a question prompt sheet (QPS) might help counselees to pursue a more active role.MethodsCounselees were randomized to receive usual care (UC) or UC plus the pre-visit website. The QPS questions were sent to the counselor before the visit. All counselees completed a baseline questionnaire, and visits were videotaped.ResultsIntervention-group counselees (n = 102) did not ask more questions than UC-group counselees (n = 90). However, counselees in the intervention group more often shared their agenda (B = 10.37; confidence interval (CI) 2.68–18.06; P = 0.01), directed the communication (B = 0.41; CI 0.28–0.53; P = 0.01), and paraphrased the counselors’ words (B = 5.18; CI 0.43–9.92; P = 0.03). Counselors introduced and answered the QPS questions. As a result, they provided more information about the topics of these questions, and the information provided was more specific to whether there was an indication for DNA testing.ConclusionA pre-visit website with QPS helped counselees to communicate more assertively. As a result, the information provided was more counselee specific, without affecting the visit duration.Genet Med 2012:14(5):535–542