Differences, occasioned by an interval of 1 week, in consent information recall by daycare prostate biopsy patients

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent of recall of consent information by daycare prostate biopsy patients in a low-literacy setting and to compare the extent of recall 1 week against the extent of recall 2 weeks after formal consent session. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study where consecutive patients for daycare prostate biopsy at a tertiary hospital were recruited from February to November, 2017. After giving informed consent for the study, the participants were randomized to receive formal consent session 1 week (Group A) or 2 weeks (Group B) to the planned date of procedure. Extent of recall was ascertained on the procedure day using semi-structured researcher-administered questionnaire from only participants who checked in with Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) score ≤ 9. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software, version 21.0, IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA. Results: At 15.8%, the recall of the risks associated with the planned procedure was poorer than the recall of nature of the disease condition (75.8%), and the recall of nature of the planned procedure (54.7%). Aggregate recall on consent information was not influenced by age (P = 0.57) or formal education status (P = 0.13) of participants, and did not vary between the two groups (P = 0.53). Conclusion: Recall of consent information on risk of planned procedure is poorer than that on the nature of disease and on the nature of planned procedure. There is no evidence that aggregate recall on consent information among daycare prostate biopsy patients changes significantly in the short term (one week) irrespective of formal education status and patient age.

Keywords

• consent-information recall
• daycare procedure
• prostate biopsy