The effectiveness of health education based on the 5Ts for teach-back on oral nutritional supplements compliance of post-discharge patients after surgery for gastric cancer: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the 5Ts teach-back(5Ts) to improve oral nutritional supplements (ONS) compliance of discharged patients after gastric cancer surgery. SETTING AND METHODS: Patients were recruited from the Bethune First Hospital of Jilin University. The patients were randomly assigned to 5Ts (n = 54) and routine health education (n = 54). Weekly ONS compliance was collected by “weekly ONS diary.” ONS knowledge, health literacy, and health education satisfaction were collected at baseline and 5 weeks after discharge. Chi-square test, Mann–Whitney U test, and T test were used for data analysis. RESULTS: At the end of the intervention, there were 41 and 40 patients in intervention and control group. 5Ts significantly improve ONS compliance, ONS knowledge level (P = 0.000), health literacy level (P = 0.011), and health education satisfaction (P = 0.009) of patients. At the end of follow-up, there were 30 and 27 patients in two groups, and no significant difference in ONS compliance (P = 0.728). CONCLUSION: The 5Ts can significantly improve patients’ ONS compliance and the effect of health education. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: This prospective trial was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry at ChiCTR2000040986 (http://www.chictr.org.cn). PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Jia Wang and Haiyan Hu contributed to the performance of the study, analysis and interpretation the data, and drafted the manuscript; Jianan Sun and Qing Zhang contributed to the supervision of the study and interpreted the data; Zhiming Chen contributed to the analysis and interpretation the data; Qiuchen Wang contributed to the performance of the study and revised the manuscript; Mingyue Zhu contributed to interpretation the data; Jiannan Yao contributed to revise the manuscript; Hua Yuan and Xiuying Zhang contributed to the conception of the study, performed the study, interpreted the data, and significantly revised the manuscript. All authors screened the final version of the manuscript.