30 novembre, 2006 18:38
Audiotaped Neonatal Consultations Improve Mothers' Recall of Information
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 30 - Mothers of infants treated in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) welcome and benefit from being given an audiotape of conversations with their child's doctor, an Australian research team reports in BMJ Online First released on December 1.
The stress of having infants treated in an NICU interferes with parents' ability to remember information provided by their neonatologist, Dr. Tieh Hee Hai Guan Koh and fellow authors note. The team wanted to see if giving mothers an audiotaped recording of their discussions with neonatologists would improve their recall and help them with their psychological distress.
Before they talked with the doctor, 200 mothers with infants in the NICU at Townsville Hospital in Douglas completed questionnaires regarding personal preferences and measures of mood, anxiety and stress. They were then randomly assigned to receive a copy of taped conversations (n = 102), or not (n = 98).
The three neonatologists participating in the study taped the first conversation and any others of significance with all the mothers, using a portable cassette recorder.
"Mothers given the tapes stated that the taped conversations helped their understanding, reminded them of what had been said, and helped their family to understand and recall information," the researchers report.
At a 10-day follow-up interview, mothers given a tape were more likely to remember their child's diagnosis (72% vs 53%, p = 0.007) and outcome (82% vs 66%, p = 0.009). At 4 months, they were more likely to recall the diagnosis, tests, treatments and outcomes.
In the control group, six subjects were unable to remember any information at all. This failure to recall conversations "has important medicolegal implications, especially when obtaining consent for treatment or participation in trials," the authors maintain.
Results showed that the tapes had no effect on the subjects' psychological well-being, stress about parenting, anxiety, or incidence of postpartum depression.
Dr. Koh's group indicates that successful taping depends on "a good quality tape recorder, a quiet room in which to hold conversations ... and use of updated, concise, and clear language, avoiding terms such as 'certain' or '100% confident.'"
BMJ Online First 2006.
