Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026
07:32
Measuring Maxillary Posterior Tooth Movement: A Model Assessment using Palatal and Dental Superimposition
Published on: February 23, 2024
Informed consent recall and comprehension in orthodontics: traditional vs improved readability and processability
Edith Y Kang1, Henry W Fields, Asuman Kiyak
1Division of Orthodontics, College of Dentistry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43218-2357, USA.
Summary
Improving orthodontic informed consent forms with enhanced readability and processability significantly boosted patient and parent recall and comprehension. This approach proved more effective than standard forms for better understanding treatment details and risks.
Area of Science:
- Orthodontic informed consent
- Health literacy
- Patient comprehension
Background:
- Low health literacy impacts understanding of informed consent documents in the U.S.
- Effective methods to improve recall and comprehension of orthodontic informed consent are underexplored.
- Existing American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) forms may not be optimally understood by patients and parents.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate recall and comprehension using standard AAO, improved readability (MIC), and enhanced readability/processability (MIC + SS) forms.
- Determine associations between reading ability, anxiety, sociodemographics, and informed consent understanding.
- Assess the impact of different consent forms on understanding treatment, risks, and responsibilities.
Main Methods:
- Three groups (30 patient-parent pairs each) received orthodontic case presentations with different consent forms.
- Forms tested included the standard AAO form, a modified readability form (MIC), and a combined readability/processability form (MIC + SS).
- Recall and comprehension were assessed via structured interviews, with transcripts coded for analysis.
Main Results:
- The MIC + SS form significantly enhanced both patient and parent recall and comprehension compared to the AAO form.
- Recall generally exceeded comprehension, and parents demonstrated higher understanding than patients.
- Patient-related variables had minimal impact on overall recall and comprehension variance.
Conclusions:
- Enhanced readability alone showed limited improvement; however, combining readability with processability (audio-visual cues) significantly benefited understanding.
- The MIC + SS form demonstrated superior effectiveness in improving recall and comprehension of orthodontic informed consent information.
- Both patients and parents tended to overestimate their understanding of the consent materials presented.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Nurses' Legal Responsibilities I
In healthcare, informed consent is a crucial process that involves thoroughly communicating medical treatment options to patients, including benefits, risks, potential side effects, and alternatives. This process enables patients to make well-informed decisions about their care, ensuring they understand the implications of their choices before consenting to or refusing treatment.
The legal responsibilities of a nurse regarding informed consent include the following:
The legal responsibilities of a nurse regarding informed consent include the following:
02:07Blind Procedures
Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...