Dickinson, RJ orcid.org/0000-0002-5811-8242, Raynor, DK orcid.org/0000-0003-0306-5275, Knapp, P et al. (1 more author) (2016) Providing additional information about the benefits of statins in a leaflet for patients with coronary heart disease – a qualitative study of the impact on attitudes and beliefs. BMJ Open, 6 (12). e012000.
Abstract
Objective: To explore the impact of providing additional information about the potential benefits of simvastatin in a patient leaflet on attitudes and beliefs. Design: Interview-based study using a generic qualitative approach and framework analysis. Participants: 21 participants receiving a prescription for simvastatin were recruited from a General practitioner (GP) practice (from a total of 120). 8 participants were female; the age range was 55-92. Intervention: Participants were provided with leaflets showing one of 3 types of additional benefit information: (1) textual statement (2) number needed to treat (NNT) or (3) natural frequency. Semi-structured interviews explored patient’s attitudes and beliefs. Results: A descriptive narrative of preferences for format suggested patients prefer textual as opposed to numerical benefit information. Significant barriers to the acceptance of numerical benefit information included difficulty in understanding the numbers. Patients over-estimated the benefits of statins and expressed surprise at the numerical information. Conclusions: Textual information was preferred but numerical information, in particular in the form of a natural frequency, may help patients make judgements about their medicines. NNTs were found to be very difficult to understand. This raises the prospect that some patients might reject medicines because of disappointment with the perceived low benefits of their medicines. The self-reported impact on behaviour appeared minimal with reports of intentions to ‘do what the doctor tells me’. Further research is needed to explore the impact of such statements on people who are yet to be prescribed a statin.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Keywords: | patient information; risk benefit communication; medicines information; risk format |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing Adult (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Pharmacy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Department of Health PO 3604 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2016 13:36 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:17 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012000 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012000 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:107682 |