Lumbar puncture patient video increases knowledge and reduces uncertainty: An RCT

BACKGROUND: Patients often perceive a lumbar puncture (LP) as an invasive procedure. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a 3‐minute educational animation‐video explaining the LP procedure, on patients’ knowledge, uncertainty, anxiety, and post‐LP complications. METHODS: We included 203 newly referred memory clinic patients, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) home viewing of the video, (2) clinic viewing of the video, or (3) control condition (care as usual). Participants completed questionnaires measuring knowledge as information recall, uncertainty, anxiety, and post‐LP complications, the latter when patients underwent an LP procedure (n = 145). RESULTS: Viewing the video increased information recall for both home (P < .001), and clinic viewers (P < .001) compared to controls. Levels of uncertainty decreased after viewing (P(for interaction )= .044), particularly for clinic viewers. Viewing the video or not did not affect anxiety and post‐LP complications. DISCUSSION: Preparing individuals for an LP by means of an educational video can help to increase knowledge about the procedure and reduce feelings of uncertainty.