Effects of demographic characteristics on preoperative teaching outcomes: a meta-analysis

Patient education is an integral part of nursing practice. Since the 1960s many primary studies and several meta-analyses have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of education for patients undergoing surgery. Although these studies demonstrate that preoperative teaching is beneficial to the "average" patient, they have paid little attention to the representativeness of the sample and the generalizability of the results. Therefore, a meta-analysis of 20 studies was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of patients who participated in preoperative teaching effectiveness studies, and to assess variation in length of hospital stay and pain outcomes in relation to age, ethnicity, gender, and education. The findings confirm the positive and moderate effects of preoperative teaching on these outcomes. However, the participants were primarily 41-60-year-old white females educated beyond the secondary level. Therefore, the findings are not generalizable to all patients undergoing surgery. This points to the need for preoperative teaching that is individually tailored and evaluated in everyday practice and for studies that examine the influence of demographic characteristics, particularly education and ethnicity, on the outcomes of preoperative teaching.