Comparison of oral, written and audio-visually based information as preparation for intravenous pyelography

Four different ways of giving information in advance to patients about to undergo a threatening medical procedure (intravenous pyelography) are compared; oral, written, slide-tape based and film-sound based. The effectiveness of the methods is measured through patients' ability to recall key point topics in the information spectrum and through their estimates of the degree of overlap between the mental images built up from the information and the reality experienced during the examination. The result is that no significant differences were found, except for one case of overlap. The relative merits of the four methods as they emerge from patients' comments are briefly discussed.