Factors influencing patient understanding of information on radiology examinations

Purpose To determine which factors influence patient understanding of information documents on radiology examinations. Materials and methods This is a randomized prospective study with 361 consecutive patients. Documents with information on 9 radiology exams were obtained ( www.radiologyinfo.org )....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Skeletal radiology 2023-08, Vol.52 (8), p.1503-1509
Main Authors: Brewer-Hofmann, Amissa, Sajjad, Sana, Bekheet, Zane, Moy, Matthew P., Wong, Tony T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic degrees
Demography
Documents
Female
Females
Health Literacy
Humans
Imaging
Male
Males
Medical research
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Medicine, Experimental
Nuclear Medicine
Orthopedics
Pathology
Patients
Prospective Studies
Radiology
Radiology - education
Radiology, Medical
Reading
Scientific Article
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Summary:Purpose To determine which factors influence patient understanding of information documents on radiology examinations. Materials and methods This is a randomized prospective study with 361 consecutive patients. Documents with information on 9 radiology exams were obtained ( www.radiologyinfo.org ). Three versions of each of these were written at low (below 7th grade), middle (8–12th grade), and high (college) reading grades. Before their scheduled radiology exam, patients were randomized to read one document. Their subjective and objective understanding of the information was assessed. Statistics including logistic regression used to assess relationships between demographic factors and document grade level and understanding. Results Twenty-eight percent (100/361) of patients completed the study. More females vs. males (85% vs. 66%) read their entire document ( p  = 0.042). Document grade level was not associated with understanding ( p  > 0.05). Correlation between college degrees and subjective understanding was positive ( r  = 0.234, p  = 0.019). More females (74% vs. 54%, p  = 0.047) and patients with college degrees (72% vs. 48%, p  = 0.034) had higher objective understanding. Controlling for document grade level and demographics, patients with college degrees were more likely to have subjective understanding of at least half of the document (OR 7.97, 95% CI [1.24, 51.34], p  = 0.029) and females were more likely to have higher objective understanding (OR 2.65, 95% CI [1.06, 6.62], p  = 0.037). Conclusion Patients with college degrees understood more on information documents. Females read more of the documents than males and had a higher objective understanding. Reading grade level did not affect understanding.
ISSN:0364-2348
1432-2161
DOI:10.1007/s00256-023-04301-y