Understanding angioplasty: An evaluation of a person-centred educational resource

Background:
Coronary angioplasty is a common procedure that requires a short hospital stay. A pre-angioplasty clinic offers the opportunity to address unmet health information needs and provide tailored patient information. A person-centred DVD was developed and sent out to patients prior to attendance at a pre-angioplasty clinic, which enabled attendees to familiarise themselves with the angioplasty process and learn about secondary prevention through self-management of lifestyle change before clinic attendance.

Aim:
To establish the user acceptability of the DVD-based health information resource Understanding Angioplasty.

Method:
A prospective study of 712 consecutive patient admissions for elective coronary angioplasty at a single centre. Patients were sent the DVD 2–3 weeks prior to admission and asked to score their satisfaction with ease of use, presentation of content and usefulness, on a brief researcher-generated questionnaire.

Results:
Two hundred and fifty four questionnaires (response rate 36%) were returned. Summary scores show that the presentation of information and content was rated as good or excellent by 95% and 93% of participants respectively. Eighty six per cent of respondents (n=213) felt better prepared to ask clinic staff about their health after watching the DVD. Eighty six per cent (n=214) reported having enough information to support them to self-manage their lifestyle to improve their heart health. Ninety eight per cent (n=249) of respondents said they would recommend the DVD resource to others undergoing elective angioplasty and 70% (n=176) had watched the DVD with a family member or friend.

Conclusion:
The format and content of the DVD were considered highly acceptable by users and it was considered to be a useful resource to instigate questions in preparation for pre-angioplasty clinic attendance and to support self-management of lifestyle change and medicines. Further work is needed to establish whether it is effective in supporting self-management in the longer term.