Perceptions and Perspectives of Patients regarding process of informed consent in a tertiary care hospital

Aim: To analyze the patient's perceptions and perceptive about different components and procedure of taking informed consent in a tertiary care hospital Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted with a predesigned interview based questionnaire form. 150 patients who underwent cesarean section, were randomly selected for study at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, which is a tertiary care multidisciplinary hospital. Patients who had some emergency surgical procedures, patients who belonged to a medical profession and the patients who refused to be interviewed were excluded from the study. Data was analyzed in SPSS Ver:17.0. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for demographic and perception process regarding informed consent. Results: A total of 150 patients were included in the study. Age range of the patients, who were interviewed was 18-44 years. Majority of the patients were primipara 89( 59.3%). Out of all cases, 64( 42.7%) of patients were from rural areas and 88 patients ( 58.7%) belonged to poor socioeconomic class. Almost half of the patients 77( 57.3%) were uneducated. It was observed that husbands, parents in law and patient's own parents were somehow or other were involved in the decision making process. In 107 cases ( 71.3%), the consent form was signed by the husband. The other forms were signed by mother in law 12( 8%) and by patient's own parents 31( 20.7%), surprisingly none of the patients signed her own consent form as primary consenting person though they were told about the reasons for cesarean section ( n=134, 89.3%) by the signatory. Conclusion: Majority of the patients in our set-up were satisfied with the process of informed consent, though at times, some of them were not fully aware about indications, risks and benefits of the surgery.