***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: PURPOSE By means of a r and omized double-blind study , the effect of providing taped initial consultations on cancer patients '  satisfaction , recall , and quality of life was investigated . PATIENTS AND METHODS Consecutive cancer patients referred to either the gynecology or medical oncology outpatient clinic were eligible .  Initial consultations were audiotaped . Patients were either provided with the tape ( experimental group ) or not ( control group ) . Baseline variables included sociodemographics , preferences for information , coping styles , and clinical characteristics . Follow-up ( after 1 week and 3 months ) variables included attitudes toward the intervention , satisfaction , recall , and quality of life . Assessment s took place through mailed question naires and telephone interviews . RESULTS Two hundred one patients were included ( response , 71 % ) , 105 in the experimental group and 96 in the control group . Most patients ( 75 % ) listened to the tape , the majority of which ( 73 % ) listened with others . Almost all patients , both in the experimental group ( 96 % ) and control group ( 98 % ) were positive about the intervention . Expectations were confirmed ; patients provided with the tape were more satisfied ( P < .05 ) and recalled more information ( P < .01 ) than patients without the tape . The intervention did not have an effect on quality of life . An interaction effect was found between the intervention and patients ' age on satisfaction with the taped consultation ( P < .01 ) and recall of diagnostic information ( P < .01 ) ; access to tapes seems more helpful in enhancing satisfaction in younger patients and recall of diagnostic information in older patients . CONCLUSION Cancer patients and their families value the taped initial consultation . This intervention enhances their satisfaction and improves their recall of information . Tapes seem more helpful in enhancing satisfaction in younger patients and recall of diagnostic information in older patients OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of an educational intervention , in the form of printed material , on  patient knowledge and recall of possible risks from  parotidectomy or thyroidectomy .  DESIGN Prospect i ve , r and omized , controlled study conducted during a 9-month period . SETTING Head and neck surgery clinic of an academic tertiary care hospital . PATIENTS One hundred twenty-five consecutive patients older than 16 years who were undergoing thyroidectomy or parotidectomy at the head and neck surgery clinic were recruited . Four patients were excluded from analysis because their follow-up interview was not within the required limits . INTERVENTION At the preoperative visit during the routine consent process , both groups received a verbally delivered checklist of risks specific for the surgery to be performed . The intervention group was also given a pamphlet with written information accompanied by illustrations . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The effectiveness of the educational intervention  was determined by comparing the average rate of risk recall between the intervention and control groups . The effects of age , sex , level of education , and time between the consent and recall interviews on recall rate were also assessed . RESULTS The overall risk recall rate for both procedures was 39.1 % . The recall rate of the intervention group was 50.3 % compared with 29.5 % for the control group ( P<.001 ) . CONCLUSIONS The intervention consistently improved risk recall for all patients regardless of age , sex , and level of education . Patients ' ability to recall potential risks was significantly increased by an educational intervention ; all patients would benefit from this intervention The current study has two aims : ( 1 ) to look at people 's recall of risk information after  genetic counselling  and ( 2 ) to determine the impact of receiving an audiotape of the genetic consultation on level of recall , cancer related worry , and women 's uptake of risk management methods . Using a prospect i ve r and omised controlled design , subjects receiving an audiotape were compared with a st and ard consultation group .  Participants were drawn from attenders at the genetic clinics of two London hospitals and included 115 women with a family history of breast cancer . Assessment of perceived genetic risk , mental health , cancer worry , and health behaviour was made before counselling at the clinic ( baseline ) and by postal follow up . Usefulness of audiotapes and satisfaction with the clinical service was assessed by study specific measures . The data indicate that cancer worry is reduced by provision of an audiotape of the genetic consultation .  Recall of the genetic risk figure , however , is not affected by provision of an audiotape and neither is it related to women 's overall perception of being more or less at risk of breast cancer than the average woman . Forty-one percent of women accurately recalled their personal risk of breast cancer at one month follow up ; however , 25 % overestimated , 11 % underestimated , and 23 % could not remember or did not know their breast cancer risk . Recall of the risk figure is more accurate when the clinical geneticist has given this to the woman as an odds ratio rather than in other formats . Subsequent health behaviour is unaffected by whether women have an audiotape record of their genetic consultation . Results suggest that having a precise risk figure may be less important than women taking away from the consultation an impression that something can be offered to help them manage that risk . Provision of an audiotape of the consultation is of limited usefulness . The need for psychological care to be better integrated into genetic counselling at cancer family clinics was highlighted by the study . The results are discussed in terms of future service development OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of  informed consent  in head and neck surgery by testing patient recall of potential complications from  thyroidectomy , parathyroidectomy , and parotidectomy .  DESIGN A prospect i ve design was used . SETTING The setting was an academic tertiary care centre . METHODS Fifty-four patients undergoing thyroidectomy , parathyroidectomy , or parotidectomy  were consented by verbal contact by the operating surgeon with a specific preoperative checklist of complication and side effects . One week to 2 months after consent , the patients were surveyed for recall of potential complications . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Rate of recall was related to various parameters including patient age , sex , level of education , occupation , and length of time from the consent interview to the recall interview . RESULTS The overall recall rate for all procedures was 48 % . Those patients who recalled over 50 % of the complications were younger ( p = .04 ) and better educated ( p = .04 ) . The gender of the patients did not appear to influence recall success ( p = 1.00 ) , even when facial scar or paralysis was considered . CONCLUSION A significant relationship exists between education level and patient age and the rate of patient recall of potential complications of surgery Patient participation in medical consultations has been demonstrated to benefit their subsequent psychological well being . Question asking is one way in which patients can be active . We investigated 2 means of promoting cancer patient  question asking . One was the provision of a question prompt sheet to patients prior to their initial consultation with their oncologist .  The second was the active endorsement and systematic review of the question prompt sheet by their oncologist . 318 patients with heterogeneous cancers , seeing one of 5 medical and 4 radiation oncologists for the first time , were r and omised to either receive or not receive a question prompt sheet . Doctors were r and omised to either proactively address or passively respond to the question prompt sheet in the subsequent consultation . Anxiety was assessed prior to the consultation . Consultations were audiotaped and content analysed . Anxiety was assessed again immediately following the consultation . Within the next 10 days patients completed question naires assessing information needs , anxiety and satisfaction and were given a structured telephone interview assessing information recall . Patients provided with a question prompt sheet asked more questions about prognosis compared with controls and oncologists gave significantly more prognostic information to these patients . Provision of the question prompt sheet prolonged consultations and increased patient anxiety ; however , when oncologists specifically addressed the prompt sheet , anxiety levels were significantly reduced , consultation duration was decreased and recall was significantly improved . A patient question prompt sheet , used proactively by the doctor , is a powerful addition to the oncology consultation . © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign BACKGROUND When patients are active participants in discussion s , comprehension and compliance are likely to improve . This study examines the use of two interventions to aid patients in initiating such discussion s in the area of health maintenance . METHODS The study was a r and omized controlled trial of adult patients . The first intervention used two cards that listed seven core health maintenance concerns . The second intervention used a brief session with a nurse to help patients identify their health risks and develop a plan for seeking any desired information about these risks . An exit question naire and a telephone interview 4 to 6 weeks later assessed the extent to which ( 1 ) information seeking by patients was stimulated ; ( 2 ) patients recalled the information obtained ; ( 3 ) patients used the information to effect lifestyle changes ; and ( 4 ) patients felt they participated in the decision to discuss health maintenance . RESULTS Both interventions stimulated patients to request health maintenance information ( both P < .05 ) ; the second intervention significantly increased patient recall ( P = .018 ) . Neither intervention , however , had a significant impact on lifestyle change or sense of participation in the decision to initiate discussion . Analysis of the second intervention did show that both increasing patients ' recall of information ( P = .008 ) and sense of involvement in the decision to discuss health maintenance ( P = .003 ) significantly increases the likelihood of lifestyle change . CONCLUSIONS Two interventions have been developed that are relatively simple and inexpensive methods to stimulate patients to seek health maintenance , and quite probably other health-related information . The blunted impact of these two interventions , however , raises the question of whether such simple and relatively inexpensive interventions are strong enough to stimulate patients to use this information to initiate change when one seeks to address a wide range of risks PURPOSE Studies of  tape recordings of cancer consultations have produced conflicting results . At the same time , audiotapes containing general information about cancer are poorly evaluated and are distributed to patients in an ad hoc manner . We compared the effects of both interventions on patient satisfaction , psychologic adjustment , and recall of information following their first consultation with a medical oncologist . PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients ( n = 142 ) were r and omized to receive ( 1 ) an audiotape of their consultation , ( 2 ) an audiotape describing cancer in general terms  , or ( 3 ) no tape .  Recall of information was assessed in a structured interview 4 to 20 days after the consultation . RESULTS Satisfaction with the consultation increased linearly from no tape to general tape to consultation tape . Satisfaction with the tape itself was higher in patients who received the consultation tape ( satisfaction score , 61 % ) compared with those who received the general tape ( 43 % ) . Average recall for all groups was 6.4 of the 25 items of information presented , and 2.4 of the six points identified as particularly important by the oncologist . The consultation tape did not improve recall over the no tape control , but the general tape caused a decrease of almost two items in total recall . Spontaneous ( ie , unprompted ) recall was significantly poorer with the general information tape . Psychologic adjustment to cancer was unaffected . CONCLUSION We conclude that individual audiotapes have a limited potential to increase recall of information from the oncology consultation . General information tapes about cancer appear to inhibit recall actively Open or uncontrolled studies have suggested that providing cancer patients with audiotapes of their clinical interviews can improve information recall and reduce psychological distress . We tested these hypotheses in a ' clinician-blind ' , prospect i ve , r and omised controlled trial . A total of 117 patients newly referred to a medical oncology clinic who were to be given ' bad news ' had their consultations  audiotaped . Blind to the clinician , patients were r and omly allocated to receive a copy of the tape to play at home or not ( control group ) . At 6 months follow-up , tape group patients reported positive attitudes to the audiotape and were shown to recall significantly more information about their illness than did controls . Overall improvement in psychological distress at 1 and 6 months follow-up , as measured with the 30-item General Health Question naire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was no different in the two groups . However , a second-order interaction suggested that poor-prognosis patients were disadvantaged specifically by access to the audiotape , with less improvement in psychological distress at 6 months follow-up than non-tape controls . Patient access to audiotapes of clinical interviews promotes factual retention but does not reliably reduce psychological distress and may be actively unhelpful in some subgroups of patients OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of oral communication about the risks of facial cosmetic procedures compared with oral and written communication . DESIGN A prospect i ve r and omized study conducted in an ambulatory surgery center . One hundred twenty consecutive patients were included ; they presented for consultation for rhinoplasty , rhytidectomy , or laser resurfacing . Patients were r and omly assigned to 1 of 2 groups : ( 1 ) those receiving oral discussion of the risks of the procedure and ( 2 ) those receiving oral and written communication about the risks . Two weeks after the initial consultation , patients were surveyed for recall of the risks . RESULTS The group that received a pamphlet had a better risk recall than the group that did not ( 2.5 vs1.5 of 5 risks ; P<.001 ) . The recall rate in the following groups that received a pamphlet was also better : ( 1 ) university-educated patients ( P = .02 ) , ( 2 ) patients who underwent rhinoplasty ( P<.001 ) , ( 3 ) patients who underwent laser resurfacing ( P = .02 ) , and ( 4 ) female patients ( P<.001 ) . CONCLUSIONS Written disclosure of the risks of cosmetic procedures enables patients to retain and underst and more clearly those potential risks . They are , therefore , able to give an informed consent to the proposed procedure . This study also identifies patient groups who may require more intensive presurgical teaching . The medicolegal implication s are apparent Written information to promote patient education is being increasingly recognized as 
    Output:
    
Conclusion While written and tape-recorded instructions appear to improve recall in most situations , a dearth of interventions incorporating psychological theory was readily apparent .