Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25885962›Full record

Trial reportBMC musculoskeletal disorders2015

Internet based patient education improves informed consent for elective orthopaedic surgery: a randomized controlled trial.

Andrew Fraval, Janan Chandrananth, Yew M Chong, Lillian S Coventry, Phong Tran

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 38 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
38citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
12.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

38 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024
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  5. Interventions to Improve Patient Comprehension in Informed Consent for Medical and Surgical Procedures: An Updated Systematic Review.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2020
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  6. Web-Based Patient Education in Orthopedics: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018
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  7. Decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Andrew FravalOrthopaedic Department, Western Health, 160 Gordon St, Footscray, VIC, 3011, Australia. afraval@mac.com
Janan ChandrananthOrthopaedic Department, Western Health, 160 Gordon St, Footscray, VIC, 3011, Australia. janan.chandrananth@gmail.com
Yew M ChongOrthopaedic Department, Western Health, 160 Gordon St, Footscray, VIC, 3011, Australia. yewming.chong@hotmail.com
Lillian S CoventryOrthopaedic Department, Western Health, 160 Gordon St, Footscray, VIC, 3011, Australia. lillianc@student.unimelb.edu.au
Phong TranOrthopaedic Department, Western Health, 160 Gordon St, Footscray, VIC, 3011, Australia. contactphong@gmail.com
Western Health · AUFootscray Hospital · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundObtaining informed consent is an essential step in the surgical pathway. Providing adequate patient education to enable informed decision making is a continued challenge of contemporary surgical practice. This study investigates whether the use of a patient information website, to augment patient education and informed consent for elective orthopaedic procedures is an effective measure.

methodsA randomised controlled trial was conducted comparing the quality of informed consent provided by a standard discussion with the treating surgeon compared to augmentation of this discussion with an online education resource (www.orthoanswer.org). Participants were recruited from orthopaedic outpatient clinics. Patients undergoing five common orthopaedic procedures were eligible to participate in the trial. The primary outcome measure was knowledge about their operation. Satisfaction with their informed consent and anxiety relating to their operation were the secondary outcome measures.

resultsThere was a statistically significant increase in patient knowledge for the intervention arm as compared to the control arm (p < 0.01). Patients in the intervention arm, had an average score of 69.25% (SD 14.91) correct answers as compared to 47.38% (SD 17.77) in the control arm. Satisfaction was also improved in the intervention arm (p = 0.043). There was no statistically significant difference between the control and intervention arm relating to their anxiety scores (p = 0.195).

conclusionsThe use of a patient education website as an augment to informed consent improves patient knowledge about their planned operation as well as satisfaction with the consent process whilst not increasing their anxiety levels. We recommend that all patients be directed to web based education tools to augment their consent.

trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12614001058662 .

Indexed as

Elective Surgical ProceduresInformed ConsentInternetOrthopedic ProceduresHumansMiddle AgedPatient Education as Topic

Identifiers

PMID25885962
PMCPMC4331305
OpenAlexW2012979427

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.