Postoperative patient education: a systematic review

Area of Science:

• Health Education
• Patient Outcomes
• Postoperative Care

Background:

• Effective postoperative educational interventions require understanding the impact of approach, delivery mode, and dose.
• Patient characteristics' relationship to outcomes is crucial for optimizing educational strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review who benefits most from postoperative education.
• To determine the optimal approach, mode, and dose of postoperative education.
• To analyze patient characteristics influencing educational intervention outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 58 studies.
• Inclusion of 5,271 participants.
• Analysis of educational intervention elements and patient demographics.

Main Results:

• Individualized content, combined media, one-on-one delivery, and multiple sessions correlate with improved health outcomes.
• Patients younger than 50 and higher male percentages demonstrated moderate outcome benefits.
• Tailored postoperative education enhances patient understanding and health results.

Conclusions:

• Designing and delivering patient education necessitates careful consideration of intervention components and patient-specific factors.
• Personalized and multi-faceted educational approaches yield better postoperative outcomes.
• Understanding patient characteristics is key to maximizing the effectiveness of health education.