What factors affect patients' recall of general practitioners' advice?
BACKGROUND
In order for patients to adhere to advice, provided by family doctors, they must be able to recall it afterwards. However, several studies have shown that most patients do not fully understand or memorize it. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of demographic characteristics, education, amount of given advice and the time between consultations on recalled advice.


METHODS
A prospective survey, lasting 30 months, was conducted in an urban family practice in Slovenia. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors for poorer recall.


RESULTS
250 patients (87.7% response rate) received at least one and up to four pieces of advice (2.4 ± 0.8). A follow-up consultation took place at 47.4 ± 35.2 days. The determinants of better recall were high school (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.15-0.99, p = 0.049) and college education (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.10-1.00, p = 0.050), while worse recall was determined by number of given instructions three or four (OR 26.1, 95% CI 3.15-215.24, p = 0.002; OR 56.8, 95% CI 5.91-546.12, p < 0.001, respectively) and re-test interval: 15-30 days (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.06-10.13, p = 0.040), 31-60 days (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.28-8.07, p = 0.013) and more than 60 days (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.05-6.02, p = 0.038).


CONCLUSIONS
Education was an important determinant factor and warrants further study. Patients should be given no more than one or two instructions in a consultation. When more is needed, the follow-up should be within the next 14 days, and would be of a greater benefit to higher educated patients.
Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana; Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. polona.selic@siol.net
Polona
P
Selic
Igor
I
Svab
Marija
M
Repolusk
Nena K
NK
Gucek
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017524:Slovenia; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D019037:Urban Health Services