The use of video information in obtaining consent for female sterilisation: a randomised study

Abstract

Hypothesis Providing additional information by video in addition to the standard consultation in women requesting sterilisation increases patients' knowledge about the procedure with no change in anxiety levels. Design Randomised control trial in 6 weeks.Population Women requesting sterilisation (n ¼ 31).Setting Gynaecology clinics in two teaching hospitals.Methods Comparison of providing additional information by video in addition to the standard consultation with the standard consultation. Main outcome measures Patients' knowledge of sterilisation, anxiety levels and acceptance of the video approach. Results Women receiving video information as well as the standard consultation had significantly higher knowledge scores compared with women only receiving the conventional consultation. Women undergoing a conventional consultation (no video) in a nurse-led dedicated sterilisation clinic had significantly higher knowledge scores than women having their consultation in a general gynaecological clinic. There were no differences in anxiety levels between the groups. Information giving by video was acceptable to the majority of women. Conclusion Videos are a reliable and consistent method of delivering information to women requesting female sterilisation.

A randomised controlled study of an audiovisual patient information intervention on informed consent and recruitment to cancer clinical trials

“…Wallace et al (2006) a 'difficult' randomised trial with very different treatment options, a multiprofessional education session with patients, which included viewing a customised video, did increase clinical trial consent rates. An important finding for the cancer trial setting, which is consistent with previous work (predominantly from other specialities), was the effectiveness of AVPI in improving knowledge and understanding without increasing anxiety (Luck et al, 1999;Mason et al, 2003). It was also encouraging that within both groups, patients were more knowledgeable following the patient information-giving process.…”

“…Audiovisual patient information (AVPI) has been shown to improve knowledge and understanding without increasing anxiety (Luck et al, 1999;Mason et al, 2003), to influence behaviour (Sherafat et al, 2003) and to assist patients with decision making (McGregor, 2003). In oncology, video and CD-ROM both have been shown to be acceptable and useful mediums for information transfer (Thomas et al, 2000;Agre et al, 2002).…”

Designing patient education and counseling practices

“…The video information on the standard treatment process was used for obtaining informed consent for female sterilisation. This resulted in increased patient knowledge scores [10]. In another study [15] the advantages of computer-based PE for patients were the improvement of knowledge and patients' cognitive empowerment, even though the level and sufficiency of knowledge was not measured.…”

“…Technological applications for PE have therefore been developed for teaching, decision aid, information retrieval, helping to get informed consent and for many other purposes [8][9][10]. Computer based solutions are claimed to have many advantages especially from organisational point of view such as interactivity, ease of contacting patients, virtual meetings and chats, individual tailoring possibilities, opportunity to standardise PE, lower costs as well as easier retrieving and storing information compared to traditional means used for PE, such as face-to-face counselling and written paper instructions [8,11].…”

“…For the patient, internet based education was actually more time consuming. Even though computer-based education seems to promote patients understanding of the procedure and identifying serious complications, it does not seem to decrease patients' anxiety level [13,10].…”