Effect of a short questionnaire (7VTE-Quest) on venous thromboembolism to guide education during consultation

Anticoagulation treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) carries potential risks, including major bleeding and recurrent VTE, often due to poor adherence, which is itself associated with insufficient patient knowledge. To investigate patient knowledge over time to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy of patient education employed in our clinic. We created a short patient questionnaire (7VTE-Quest), completed in the waiting room and used to guide patient education during consultation. Patients requiring anticoagulant therapy ≥3 months and having completed the 7VTE-Quest at 2 different consultations between March 2022 and December 2024 were included. The primary endpoint was improved score (≥1 point) at second completion of the questionnaire. A total of 135 patients completed the questionnaire a second time a mean (±SD) 211 (±169) days after the initial completion. After excluding 4 patients who achieved a perfect score both times, the score improved for 56.5% (74/131) of patients. The change in total score ranged from -3 to +4. The greatest overall gain was for questions on management of forgotten medication dose (20.0%, 27/135) and interaction between anticoagulants and NSAIDs (11.1%, 15/135). A regression in the number of patients providing correct answers was observed for all questions between 1.6 and 40%. The greatest regression was observed for NSAID contraindication: 40.0% (14/35) of patients could no longer recall this contraindication, while 29.0% (29/100) of those who could not initially recall this contraindication did so at the second completion. The strategy we propose shows an improvement of patient knowledge on their VTE disease and treatment but failed to assess its impact on clinical outcomes.