ArticleCMAJ open
Patients' and caregivers' perspectives on factors that influence understanding of and adherence to hospital discharge instructions: a qualitative study.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06679309 (Paving a Road Map for Integrated Care Evaluation in Canada), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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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.
Paving a Road Map for Integrated Care Evaluation in Canada: A Mixed Methods Evaluation for Patients With Complex Care Needs in Ontario and Alberta
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Predictors of Older Adult Adherence With Emergency Department Discharge Instructions.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2021Trial
- Recommendations Following Hospitalization for Acute Exacerbation of COPD-A Consensus Statement of the Polish Respiratory Society.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of post-discharge follow-up and clinical outcomes in patientsRevista de la Facultad de Ciencias Medicas (Cordoba, Argentina) · 2025Article
- Article
- When public health emergencies hit the front line: a qualitative study of the patient experience in the emergency department and outpatient infectious disease clinic during the 2022 Mpox clade IIb outbreak.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Video discharge instructions increase patient understanding for office-based procedures: a randomized controlled study.Translational andrology and urology · 2025Article
- Family caregivers' perspectives on the acceptability of four interventions proposed for rural transitional care: A multi-method study.PloS one · 2022Article
- Goals of care or goals of life? A qualitative study of clinicians' and patients' experiences of hospital discharge using Patient-Oriented Discharge Summaries (PODS).BMC health services research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMany patients have difficulty understanding and adhering to discharge instructions once home from hospital. We assessed patient and family caregiver perspectives on factors that influence understanding of and adherence to discharge instructions.
methodsWe conducted a qualitative study using semistructured interviews of participants aged 18 years or more enrolled in a multicentre mixed-methods study who were discharged from 3 acute care hospitals across Ontario with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or pneumonia. Patients were recruited between March and November 2016. We used directed content analysis to derive themes and subthemes.
resultsTwenty-seven participants (16 patients and 11 family members) described 5 themes that affected their understanding of and adherence to discharge instructions: 1) the role of caregivers, 2) relationships with inpatient and outpatient health care providers, 3) previous hospital stay, 4) barriers to accessing postdischarge care and 5) system-level processes. Subthemes highlighted the importance participants attributed to who provides the instructions, the development of resilience and advocacy through previous admissions, the benefits of addressing language and physical disability barriers, reviewing instructions in a unhurried manner, and ensuring that written instructions are meaningful and actionable.
interpretationCare transition interventions targeting improved communication are unlikely to improve understanding of and adherence to discharge instructions on their own. A patient-centred framework that promotes positive relationships with a patient's circle of care, reflects previous experiences with discharge, addresses equity barriers, and enhances strategies for patient and caregiver engagement at the time of discharge may optimize understanding and adherence once the patient is home.
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Registered trials
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