Background: Patients often perceive a lumbar puncture (LP) as an invasive procedure. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a 3-minute educational animation-video explaining the LP procedure, on patients' knowledge, uncertainty, anxiety, and post-LP complications.
Methods: We included 203 newly referred memory clinic patients, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) home viewing of the video, (2) clinic viewing of the video, or (3) control condition (care as usual). Participants completed questionnaires measuring knowledge as information recall, uncertainty, anxiety, and post-LP complications, the latter when patients underwent an LP procedure (n = 145).
Results: Viewing the video increased information recall for both home (P < .001), and clinic viewers (P < .001) compared to controls. Levels of uncertainty decreased after viewing (Pfor interaction = .044), particularly for clinic viewers. Viewing the video or not did not affect anxiety and post-LP complications.
Discussion: Preparing individuals for an LP by means of an educational video can help to increase knowledge about the procedure and reduce feelings of uncertainty.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; educational animation‐video; information provision; lumbar puncture; memory clinics; patient education; post‐lumbar puncture complications.
© 2021 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.