Evaluation of an Interactive E-learning Environment to Enhance Digital Health Literacy in Cancer Patients

Summary

This study aims to create and test an online learning tool to help people with cancer improve their skills in finding and understanding health information online. The main question it aims to answer is:

• Do people with cancer who use the online learning tool improve their skills more than those who don't use the tool?

The investigators will test this idea in a study. The investigators will put people into different groups by chance and compare the results. 660 people with cancer will participate. These people will be chosen to represent different types of cancer.

* Group 1: Uses the online learning too (3 versions)
* Group 2: Uses a PDF with the same information
* Control Group: Receives no intervention

What Participants Will Do:

Use the online tool or PDF to learn how to find reliable cancer information online.

Answer questions about their digital health skills before starting, after 2 weeks, and after 8 weeks.

Development:

Before the start of the main study the online tool will be developed and tested. The investigators will first show a prototype of the tool to two discussion groups and use their feedback to improve it. Then, experts and people with cancer will test the final version

Conditions

• Neoplasms

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

intervention group 1.1 - e-learning

The e-learning environment will include text, images, and short videos created using Articulate Rise 360, an easy-to-use e-learning authoring tool, with the following content to improve the different skills of digital health literacy: 1. Evaluating reliability skills: Participants will get to know criteria and indicators for evaluating the content of the information they find and for assessing the trustworthiness of website providers. 2. Improving information skills: Participants will learn simple rules on how to optimize their Google searches. 3. Improving navigation skills: Participants will learn simple rules for navigation; using the back button; using more than one tab; drop-down lists and anchor links are introduced. 4. Additional goals are to raise awareness about various aspects related to online searches, including the exploration of alternative and complementary therapies, and the importance of data protection.

BEHAVIORAL

intervention-group 1.2 - e-learning

Participants are also given access to the e-learning environment. However, they will not be taken step-by-step through the content (tunneling). They can choose the order of the content.

BEHAVIORAL

intervention-group 1.3 - e-learning

Participants are also given access to the e-learning environment, but all rehearsal elements such as quizzes will be removed from the e-learning environment.

BEHAVIORAL

intervention-group 2 - PDF

Participants in IG2 will receive the same content as participants in the IG1.1, but not within the interactive learning environment, but in a non-interactive PDF format.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• German Cancer Research Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Holger Schulz, Prof. · Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

• Susanne Weg-Remers, Dr. · German Cancer Research Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-01-16

Primary Completion

2025-09-01

Completion

2025-10-01

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations