LifeGuide: Quantitative Piloting of interventions Judith Joseph

Background  The ‘Internet Doctor’ - developed to identify the tools required in LifeGuide  Provides people with tailored advice for the self-care of cold and flu symptoms 2

The Internet Doctor  Information and advice for four common cold and flu symptoms: cough, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose and fever  Seven sections: – Welcome pages – Doctor’s Questions – Symptom Advice – Other conditions – Treatment Options – Printable Advice – Common Questions about colds and flu

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Aims  Examine the utility of LifeGuide for the development, delivery and evaluation of an intervention that provides tailored information and advice  Examine the usability of two different formats for presenting the intervention Hypothesis  Completion of the consultation cycle would be lower in the ‘more interactive’ group because they would be distracted by additional information

Method  100 participants viewed the ‘Internet Doctor’  Aged between years  Asked to access the website when they had cold or flu symptoms

Method  Participants randomised to either: – The full, ‘more interactive’ version OR – A ‘less interactive’ version:  Core aims of the website and how to use it  Diagnostic Questions  Symptom Advice  Omitted all optional links  Avoided ‘humanising’ the website

Data export  Intervention Manager - Data on usage of the two versions of the websites was exported to Excel  Data on: – Pages viewed – Participants’ responses to interactions – Which links were clicked – Duration

Results  65 participants had cold or flu symptoms - 35 more interactive; 30 less interactive  15% of all participants did not go beyond the “Welcome pages”  No significant difference in the time spent on the website

Comparison of the 2 groups: No. of symptoms selected

Comparison of the 2 groups: No. of participants viewing each section of the consultation cycle

Comparison of the 2 groups: % completing the consultation cycle

No. of people viewing the optional links in the more interactive version  Ask the Internet Doctor - 14%  Other Conditions - 2%  Treatment Options - 14%  Common Questions about colds and flu – 6%

Discussion  Participants randomised to the less interactive version were more likely to: – complete the consultation cycle – consult for more symptoms  The additional information and optional links may have been distracting

Discussion  Few participants clicked on the optional links in the more interactive version – May not have been interested in the additional information – New tabs and windows may have caused navigational difficulties

Discussion  Changes were made to website to make it more user friendly  Data collection for the main qualitative study has now been completed