Utility of an educational video on epinephrine prefilled syringe usage for anaphylaxis: a randomized control trial

BACKGROUND: Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that needs early administration of intramuscular epinephrine for treatment. Currently, structured education on epinephrine prefilled syringe usage for anaphylaxis does not exist. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the epinephrine prefilled syringe usage video, compared with routine teaching method. METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial. A total of 129 medical students were assigned either to the routine teaching group or the video teaching group. The main outcome is the total number of medical students who passed (>70%) the test. The pre-, posttest, and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) were used to evaluate the students. RESULTS: At the 2-week follow-up, the individual scores increased significantly after both interventions (p < 0.001). The percentages of medical students who passed the exam in the pre-, posttests, and OSCE were not significantly different between the groups. In the routine teaching group and video teaching group, the percentages of students who passed increased from 32.2% to 96.6% and 28.1% to 95.3%, respectively (p = 0.99). Using univariate logistic regression analysis, previous knowledge of anaphylaxis was a factor to pass the test (odds ratio, 5.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.93–13.31; p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the scores after the video education intervention were not inferior to the routine teaching group. This technique might be applied for patients in clinical practice. However, the further researches in general population are needed to confirm the efficacy of this method.