Information needs of patients in spine surgery: development of a question prompt list to guide informed consent consultations

Abstract

Background context: Informed consent is mandatory before surgery and fundamental in the physician-patient interaction. However, communication is sometimes suboptimal.

Purpose: The objective was to develop a question prompt list (QPL) for patients undergoing spine surgery (spinal neurosurgery-QPL, "SN-QPL") to encourage them to acquire information during the informed consent consultation (ICC) and assess patients' information needs.

Study design/setting: We conducted a prospective uncontrolled single center study in order to develop a QPL for patients undergoing spine surgery.

Patient sample: Patients inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) planned spinal surgery, (2) age 18 to 80 years, (3) legal capacity, (4) ability to understand and respond to questionnaires, and (5) informed consent.

Outcome measures: We applied the following self-report measures: the developed preliminary QPL with regard to surgery topics and assessment of patients' information needs.

Methods: First, we performed a literature review, patient interviews, and two expert rounds. Subsequently, we validated a preliminary SN-QPL including 37 items before and after ICC with regard to importance of items and fulfillment of information needs in 118 patients. A principal component analysis followed by varimax rotation revealed the final SN-QPL.

Results: For the final version of the SN-QPL, 27 items with following four reliable subscales were derived with satisfactory internal consistency: (1) scale SN-QPL-C, "complications and possible postoperative deficits" (n = 8 items, Cronbach α = 0.88); (2) scale SN-QPL-P, "prognosis and follow-up" (n = 8 items, Cronbach α = 0.86); (3) scale SN-QPL-I, "preoperative inpatient stay and organizational issues" (n = 5 items, Cronbach α = 0.75); and (4) scale SN-QPL-S: "safety of the surgical procedure" (with n = 6 items, Cronbach α = 0.84). The most unmet information needs were found in SN-QPL-P. The item with the greatest unmet information needs was "How much professional experience does my surgeon have?"

Conclusions: Our SN-QPL was well-accepted and perceived as helpful by patients awaiting spinal surgeries. It seems to address meaningful items and questions. It could therefore be useful in optimizing pre- and postoperative satisfaction. Further, our study identified many unaddressed questions warranting communication interventions.

Keywords: Communication intervention; Information needs; Informed consent; Patients’ satisfaction; Question prompt list; Spine surgery.