Abstract
Background
Quality communication has been found to improve patient outcomes. Despite good communication,
information may still be forgotten or misunderstood by patients. A question prompt
list is a document to help patients ask questions. Question prompt lists are well
perceived by various stakeholders and have been found of benefit to patients. This
systematic review evaluated the effectiveness of patient question prompting documents
in surgical outpatient consultations.
Methods
MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO were searched on September 13, 2021. Study selection,
data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were performed in duplicate. We included
English studies that investigated the use of question prompt lists and their influence
on patient outcomes. We excluded studies that did not have a comparator group. Because
of heterogeneity of outcome measures, meta-analysis was precluded. This study was
registered with PROSPERO (identification number: CRD42021279058).
Results
Searches identified 107 suitable studies; however, only 7 studies met eligibility
criteria. All included studies were randomized controlled trials, but the designs
of studies were heterogenous. Three out of 7 included studies were at a high risk
of bias. The included studies investigated different outcomes that could be broadly
categorized into 5 themes: consultation characteristics, patient engagement, patient
well-being, information exchange, and patient satisfaction. None of the studies looked
at patient recall of information. Aside from length of consultation, the overall results
for each category were mixed.
Conclusion
Current literature has suggested that question prompt lists are a low-risk intervention
that could improve patient engagement and patient-doctor communication; however, there
is limited evidence at present to conclusively promote their usage in perioperative
surgical consultations.
Abbreviations:
QPL (Question Prompting List), PICO (Patient Intervention Comparison Outcome), PICS (Patient Perceived Involvement in Care tool), ASK (AskShareKnow), PEPPI-5 (5-Item Perceived Efficacy in Patient-Physician Interaction), HCCQ (Health Care Climate Questionnaire), STAI (State Anxiety Index), AMSTAR (Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews), PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), PEMAT-P (Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials), PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System), MYCaW (Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 29, 2022
Accepted:
August 24,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
