SynthesisBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2008
Interventions before consultations to help patients address their information needs by encouraging question asking: systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03548779 (North Carolina Genomic Evaluation by Next-generation Exome Sequencing, 2), which is not on this map. Cited by 80 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
North Carolina Genomic Evaluation by Next-generation Exome Sequencing, 2
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Older Patients' Verbal Communication in Interactions With Primary Care Staff: A Qualitative Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions for involving older patients with multi-morbidity in decision-making during primary care consultations.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Characterizing patient-oriented tools that could be packaged with guidelines to promote self-management and guideline adoption: a meta-review.Implementation science : IS · 2016Pooled it
- Congruence between patients' preferred and perceived participation in medical decision-making: a review of the literature.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2014Pooled it
- Addressing health literacy in patient decision aids.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2013Pooled it
- Trial
- Effects of a Patient Question Prompt List on Question Asking and Self-Efficacy During Outpatient Palliative Care Appointments.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2023Trial
- Development and pilot evaluation of a personalized decision support intervention for low risk prostate cancer patients.Cancer medicine · 2020Trial
- Patient-Family Agenda Setting for Primary Care Patients with Cognitive Impairment: the SAME Page Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Randomised controlled trial of a brief intervention targeting predominantly non-verbal communication in general practice consultations.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Trial
- Empowering Women's Prenatal Communication: Does Literacy Matter?Journal of health communication · 2015Trial
- A tool to strengthen the older patient-companion partnership in primary care: results from a pilot study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2014Trial
- Effects of a web-based patient activation intervention to overcome clinical inertia on blood pressure control: cluster randomized controlled trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2013Trial
- Physician endorsement alone may not enhance question-asking by advanced cancer patients during consultations about palliative care.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2012Trial
- Effectiveness of an interactive website aimed at empowerment of disability benefit claimants: results of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2011Trial
- Process evaluation of a web-based intervention aimed at empowerment of disability benefit claimants.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2011Trial
- A decision aid to support informed choices about bowel cancer screening among adults with low education: randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2010Trial
- Empowerment of disability benefit claimants through an interactive website: design of a randomized controlled trial.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2009Trial
- Effects of a computer-supported interactive tailored patient assessment tool on patient care, symptom distress, and patients' need for symptom management support: a randomized clinical trial.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIATrial
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the effects on patients, clinicians, and the healthcare system of interventions before consultations to help patients or their representatives gather information in consultations by question asking.
designSystematic review with meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: Electronic literature searches of seven databases and hand searching of one journal and bibliographies of relevant articles. Review methods Inclusion criteria included randomised controlled trials.
main outcome measuresPrimary outcomes were question asking; patients' anxiety, knowledge, and satisfaction; and length of consultation.
results33 randomised trials of variable quality involving 8244 patients were identified. A few studies showed positive effects. Meta-analyses showed small and statistically significantly increases in question asking (standardised mean difference 0.27, 95% confidence interval 0.19 to 0.36) and patients' satisfaction (0.09, 0.03 to 0.16). Non-statistically significant changes occurred in patients' anxiety before consultations (weighted mean difference -1.56, -7.10 to 3.97), patients' anxiety after consultations (standardised mean difference -0.08, -0.22 to 0.06), patients' knowledge (-0.34, -0.94 to 0.25), and length of consultation (0.10, -0.05 to 0.25). Interventions comprising written materials had similar effects on question asking, consultation length, and patients' satisfaction as those comprising the coaching of patients. Interventions with additional training of clinicians had little further effect than those targeted at patients alone for patients' satisfaction and consultation length.
conclusionsInterventions for patients before consultations produce small benefits for patients. This may be because patients and clinicians have established behaviours in consultations that are difficult to change. Alternatively small increases in question asking may not be sufficient to make notable changes to other outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.