Trial reportIntensive care medicine2018
Questions to improve family-staff communication in the ICU: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Intensive care medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02410538 (Frequently Asked Questions as an Help to Improve the Information of ICU Patients' Families.), which is not on this map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 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.
Frequently Asked Questions as an Help to Improve the Information of ICU Patients' Families.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Society of Critical Care Medicine Guidelines on Family-Centered Care for Adult ICUs: 2024.Critical care medicine · 2025Guideline
- European Society of Intensive Care Medicine guidelines on end of life and palliative care in the intensive care unit.Intensive care medicine · 2024Guideline
- Interventions for interpersonal communication about end of life care between health practitioners and affected people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Family Support Strategies During Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingPooled it
- Nurses' Role in Transitional Care During Intensive Care Unit Family Meetings for Patients With Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Interventions to improve mental health in caregivers of adult intensive care patients: a systematic review.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- The second brain in the line of fire: addressing surrogate cognitive dysautoregulation.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Identification of unmet information needs among families of critically ill patients and their association with post-intensive care syndrome-family: protocol for a single-center cross-sectional study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Misconceptions and do-not-resuscitate preferences of healthcare professionals commonly involved in cardiopulmonary resuscitations: A national survey.Resuscitation plus · 2024Article
- Prediction of post-traumatic stress disorder in family members of ICU patients: a machine learning approach.Intensive care medicine · 2024Article
- Communication and visiting policies in Italian intensive care units during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave and lockdown: a nationwide survey.BMC anesthesiology · 2022Article
- Nurse perceptions of a nurse family liaison implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative thematic analysis.Intensive & critical care nursing · 2022Article
- Integrating the Choosing Wisely 5 Questions into Family Meetings in the Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Effect on Family Perceived Involvement in Decision-Making.Journal of patient experience · 2022Article
- "A Delicate balance"-Perceptions and Experiences of ICU Physicians and Nurses Regarding Controlled Donation After Circulatory Death. A Qualitative Study.Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation · 2022Article
- Intensive care doctors and nurses personal preferences for Intensive Care, as compared to the general population: a discrete choice experiment.Critical care (London, England) · 2021Observational
- End-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic-What makes the difference?Nursing in critical care · 2021Article
- Family Meetings in the Intensive Care Unit During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2021Article
- How family caregivers of persons with advanced cancer assist with upstream healthcare decision-making: A qualitative study.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors at 11 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeRelatives of intensive care unit (ICU) patients suffer emotional distress that impairs their ability to acquire the information they need from the staff. We sought to evaluate whether providing relatives with a list of important questions was associated with better comprehension on day 5.
methodsRandomized, parallel-group trial. Relatives of mechanically ventilated patients were included from 14 hospitals belonging to the FAMIREA study group in France. A validated list of 21 questions was handed to the relatives immediately after randomization. The primary endpoint was comprehension on day 5. Secondary endpoints were satisfaction (Critical Care Family Needs Inventory, CCFNI) and symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS).
resultsOf 394 randomized relatives, 302 underwent the day-5 assessment of all outcomes. Day-5 family comprehension was adequate in 68 (44.2%) and 75 (50.7%) intervention and control group relatives (P = 0.30), respectively. Over the first five ICU days, median number of family-staff meetings/patient was 6 [3-9], median total meeting time was 72.5 [35-110] min, and relatives asked a median of 20 [8-33] questions including 11 [6-13] from the list, with no between-group difference. Satisfaction and anxiety/depression symptoms were not significantly different between groups. The only variable significantly associated with better day-5 comprehension by multivariable analysis was a higher total number of questions asked before day 5.
conclusionsProviding relatives with a list of questions did not improve day-5 comprehension, secondary endpoints, or information time. Further research is needed to help families obtain the information they need.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02410538.
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.