Effective and safe management of oral anticoagulant treatment (OAT) requires a high level of patient knowledge and adherence. The aim of this study was to assess patient knowledge about OAT and factors associated with patients’knowledge.
Methods:
This is a baseline survey of a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 22 general practices with an educational intervention for patients’or their caregivers.
We assessed knowledge about general information on OAT and key facts regarding nutrition, drug-interactions and other safety precautions of 345 patients at baseline.
Results:
Participants rated their knowledge about OAT as excellent to good (56%), moderate (36%) or poor (8%). However, there was a discrepancy between self-rated knowledge and evaluated actual knowledge and we observed serious knowledge gaps.
Half of the participants (49%) were unaware of dietary recommendations. The majority (80%) did not know which non-prescription analgesic is the safest and 73% indicated they would not inform pharmacists about OAT.
Many participants (35-75%) would not recognize important emergency situations. After adjustment in a multivariate analysis, older age and less than 10 years education remained significantly associated with lower overall score, but not with self-rated knowledge.
Conclusions:
Patients have relevant knowledge gaps, potentially affecting safe and effective OAT.
There is a need to assess patients’knowledge and for structured education programs.Trial registration: Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien (German Clinical Trials Register): DRKS00000586.Universal Trial Number (UTN U1111-1118-3464).
Author: Jean-François ChenotThanh Duc HuaManar Abu AbedHannelore Schneider-RudtTim FriedeSimon SchneiderStefan Viktor Vormfelde
Credits/Source: BMC Family Practice 2014, 15:104
Published on: 2014-05-25
Tweet
News Provider: 7thSpace Interactive
Social Bookmarking
RETWEET This! | Digg this! | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Furl | Add to Netscape | Add to Yahoo! | Rojo
There are no comments available. Be the first to write a comment.