A Prospective Survey on Adequacy of Information Conveyed to Consenters Prior to Obtaining an Informed Consent for Anaesthesia

Background: Ensuring adequate information conveyance to consenters prior to obtaining consent for anaesthesia is an ethical necessity.

Objective: To ascertain the adequacy of information conveyed to consenters prior to obtaining informed consent for anaesthesia, in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

METHOD: Ethical clearance secured and written consent obtained, 385 subjects, aged ≥18 years, were served questionnaires addressing 19 points totally, 5 of which (section A) elicited socio-demographic data, while 14 (section B) assessed the comprehensiveness and adequacy of information conveyed prior to obtaining consent. A “yes, very much” option score ≥80%, or combined “yes, very much” and “yes, but little” options score ≥90%, was considered adequate information in each of the 14 points addressed in section B.

Results: There was less than 80% score of the “yes, very much” option, and  <90% combined score from the “yes, very much” and “yes, but little” options under knowledge of involvement of anaesthesia for the planned surgery, reason, type, advantages, problems, alternative forms of anaesthesia, sufficiency of time spent and information conveyed, as well as under allowance of expression, ease of understanding of language used and satisfaction; the combined proportion of consenters who chose the “yes, but very little” and “no, not at all” options ranged 16.88 –  78.44%.

Conclusion: Adequacy of information conveyed to consenters for obtaining informed consent was <80% in the depth of information conveyed, allowance of expression, ease of understanding of language and satisfaction.