PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Matthew A Goldsworthy
AU  - Waleed Fateen
AU  - Helene Thygesen
AU  - Mark A Aldersley
AU  - Ian A Rowe
AU  - Rebecca L Jones
TI  - Patient understanding of liver cirrhosis and improvement using multimedia education
AID  - 10.1136/flgastro-2016-100761
DP  - 2017 Jul 01
TA  - Frontline Gastroenterology
PG  - 214--219
VI  - 8
IP  - 3
4099  - http://fg.bmj.com/content/8/3/214.short
4100  - http://fg.bmj.com/content/8/3/214.full
SO  - Frontline Gastroenterol2017 Jul 01; 8
AB  - Objective For patients to engage with the long-term management of liver cirrhosis, sufficient understanding of their condition is essential. The aim of this study was to assess baseline patient knowledge and to test whether a condition-specific multimedia screencast could improve this.Design Service quality improvement study.Setting A UK tertiary liver centre. Patients were recruited during 12 general hepatology outpatient clinics.Patients Fifty-two patients with liver cirrhosis were included. Sixty-two per cent were male; their median age was 56 years and their median clinic attendance period was 3 years.Interventions Participants completed a baseline questionnaire assessing their knowledge of the management and complications of cirrhosis. They then watched a tailored screencast discussing this condition, which had been developed by expert hepatologists in collaboration with patient representatives. Knowledge was reassessed using a new copy of the original questionnaire after an interval of at least one month.Main outcome measures Patient scores on knowledge questionnaires at baseline and follow-up.Results Fifty-two patients achieved a median score of 25.0% before viewing the screencast. Thirty-five patients then completed a follow-up questionnaire after an interval period. The median questionnaire score in this group improved from 25.0% to 66.7%; an increase of 41.7% compared with baseline (p<0.001).Conclusions Despite regular review at a specialist clinic, participants had poor baseline knowledge of liver cirrhosis. Delivering information by screencast led to a significant improvement. We therefore present an effective way to empower patients with accurate, up-to-date and retainable information that can easily be translated to many other conditions.