Adolescent Acne Education Materials Compared

<p>TUESDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Printed educational materials and brief audiovisual presentations are both effective in increasing adolescents' knowledge about acne, researchers report in the February issue of the <i>Archives of Dermatology</i>.</p><p>Phoebe E. Koch, M.D., of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues randomized 101 patients aged 13 to 17 to receive either a written handout or watch a 6.5-minute computerized presentation about acne vulgaris. Patients completed a brief questionnaire about acne at baseline, and then completed the identical questionnaire immediately after the intervention, and again at one-month follow-up.</p><p>Both groups showed improvements in knowledge of acne over baseline values immediately post-intervention. At one-month follow-up, patients in the pilot study (21 patients) who viewed the computerized presentation retained knowledge better than those who received the handout. In the larger, revised study, which included 80 patients, both groups showed significant gains in knowledge over baseline at one-month follow-up.</p><p>"The results of our study support the notion that computerized audiovisual presentations serve as effective teaching tools in the clinic and may relieve the burden on busy health care providers," the authors write. "The data suggest, contrary to our expectations, that written handouts impart equivalent gains in acne knowledge compared with computerized audiovisual handouts. Analysis of these results sheds light on the limitations of our study and generates questions for future research."</p><p><a href="http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/144/2/208" target="_new">Abstract</a><br/><a href="http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/144/2/208" target="_new">Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)</a></p>

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