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Knowledge and perception of surgical informed consent among adult surgical patients in Arba Minch and Jinka General Hospitals, Southern Ethiopia
Abstract
Background: The surgical informed consent process and format are not uniform nationally and internationally. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and perception of adult patients towards the legal nature of surgical informed consent in Arbaminch and Jinka General Hospitals, South Ethiopia.
Methods: Responses from 423 post-operative adult surgical patients were taken using pretested structured interviewer-administered questionnaires for five months. A hospital-based cross-sectional study of all adult surgical patients who were operated were involved before discharged from December 1 2021-April 30, 2022 in Arbaminch and Jinka general hospitals, Southern Ethiopia. Stratified sampling technique was used. The collected data entered into EPI-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS (version 25) software for statistical analyses. A significant level was determined at a P-value <0.05 with 95% confidence interval.
Results: A total of 423 adults with a response rate of 100% were included in the study. Of the respondent's consent, only 210 (49.6%) was taken by an operating surgeon, and the majority was taken by a general practitioner, nurse, and midwife. Surprisingly consent taken by the porter was 5(1.2%). Of the respondents, only 188(44.4%) had good knowledge and only 58 (13.7%) had a good perception regarding surgical informed consent. Patients exposed for consent signing previously, had 4.06 times higher knowledge than those unexposed (AOR=4.06, 95% CI :-( 1.80, 4.492)). Those patients living in an urban area were well aware of surgical informed consent (AOR=0.246, 95% CI :- (0.212, 1.660)). Level of understanding of surgical informed consent, significantly increased for those informed by an operating surgeon (AOR=4.45, 95% CI :- ( 1.95, 5.09)).
Conclusion: Majority of our patients had poor knowledge and poor perception regarding the legal nature of surgical informed consent. Living in urban, signing informed consent previously and consent taken by operating surgeon affected level of knowledge positively. The consent had to be taken at least by the operating surgeon.
