Comparing Anxiety Levels and Pain Scores for Video-assisted and Traditional Informed Consent in Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy: A Prospective, Randomised, Controlled Study

Aims: Traditionally, informed consent involves verbal and/or written material provided to the patient by a treating clinician. Multimedia interventions improve patients’ knowledge and understanding during the informed consent process. This study aimed to compare pre-procedural anxiety levels and pain scores between educational video-assisted informed consent and traditional informed consent for extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) at our centre.

Study Design: This was a prospective, randomised, controlled study conducted at two centres.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in two Urology centre Department of Urology, Penang General Hospital and Department of Urology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur between 15th May 2022 till 15th October 2022.

Methodology: The study group consisted of all adult patients undergoing ESWL in. both centres. A video presentation explaining the ESWL procedure was developed in two languages, and group allocation was randomised using a computer-based random number generator. Anxiety levels were assessed using the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) questionnaire, visual analogue scale, and numerical rating scale used to collect data on pain scores.

Results: A total of 54 respondents, with a predominance of male patients (57.4%) and the majority of patients having completed secondary school education (53.7%). In comparing the two groups, the video-assisted respondents exhibited significantly lower anxiety scores regarding the procedure than those in the traditional group (p< 0.05). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of pain scores, both pre- and post-procedural.

Conclusion: Video-assisted informed consent can reduce procedure-related patient anxiety levels before ESWL; however, there was no difference in pain scores between the two consent methods. patients.