Syphilis Video Tool to Promote Knowledge and Testing in the ED

The objective of this study is to determine whether the "Syphilis and Men" educational video can be a useful tool to increase syphilis knowledge and testing among English and Spanish-speaking urgent care and emergency department patients, regardless of various self-reported characteristics that increase their risk for syphilis infection.

A randomized four-group intervention-control Solomon design was implemented with Group 1 participants receiving a pre-test survey, the educational video intervention, and a post-test survey; Group 2 the pre-test and post-test surveys; Group 3 the video intervention and a post-test survey; and Group 4 the post-test survey. This design was selected to assess the effect of the video in increasing syphilis knowledge while controlling for the influence of the pre-test instrument in potentially sensitizing participants to key facts. A computer-generated randomization list was created and used to assign patients to groups.

The primary outcome was the score on a 10-question measure designed to assess knowledge attained from the educational video.

Inclusion Criteria: Patients aged 18-55 years of age were eligible only if they spoke English or Spanish. Exclusion Criteria: Patients were excluded if clinically unstable, unarousable, hearing impaired or visually impaired despite corrected lens.