Patients’ satisfaction and associated factors towards preoperative informed consent process: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Informed consent is a process that needs time and effort to satisfy patients' desires. Patient dissatisfaction on preoperative informed consent process may be caused by multiple factors of clinical practice. This study aimed to assess patients’ satisfaction and associated factors of informed consent process among elective surgical patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 404 postoperative patients who signed the informed consent for elective surgery. A systematic sampling technique was applied to select the study participants. Modified Leiden perioperative patient satisfaction tool was adapted to assess patients’ satisfaction with preoperative informed consent process. Data were entered in to Epi-data version 4.20 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was computed to identify independent variables associated with patient satisfaction towards preoperative informed consent process. A p-value of less than 0.05 was used to declare the statistical significance. RESULTS: The overall satisfaction of patients with preoperative informed consent process was 70.3%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that, being male (AOR: 4.75, 95% CI: 2.47–9.16), primary school (AOR: 8.42, 95% CI: 4.74–7.55), secondary school (AOR: 2.17, 95% CI: 5.74–8.62), rural residence (AOR: 1.8, 95% CI: 2.1–3.9) and received general anesthesia (AOR: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.62–5.26) were significantly associated with patients’ satisfaction with the informed consent process. CONCLUSION: The overall patients' satisfaction on preoperative informed consent process was relatively low. Being male, low level of education, living in rural area, and receiving general anesthesia were significantly associated with patients' satisfaction on informed consent process. Surgeons and anesthesia professionals need to work more to improving the satisfaction of patients with preoperative informed consent process. Researchers are expected to do periodic assessment of patients’ level of satisfaction and factors affecting satisfaction.