Computer-assisted instruction for the chronically ill child

A package of four computer-assisted instruction lessons has been developed. These lessons teach elementary principles of nutrition and motivate compliance with those principles for adolescents and pre-adolescents (ages 10 to 16 years) with cystic fibrosis. Nineteen patients at the University of Minnesota Regional Cystic Fibrosis Center used an average of two lessons each. Their self-assessed level of nutrition knowledge before using the lessons was low (slightly less than little knowledge). This self-assessment was not correlated with scores on a nutrition pre-test. On the average, patients reported learning between a medium amount and a good deal from the lessons. However such learning could not be documented through pre/post-test methodology.