INFORMED CONSENT

AWARENESS AND PRACTICE AMONG GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS

Abstract

Introduction: Informed consent is the back bone of patients’ autonomy. The
advancement in medical technology has further increased its importance. In the developing
countries including Pakistan, general physicians play a vital role in providing health care
to the patients but unfortunately majority of them are unaware about the ethical aspects of
their medical practice. Methodology: Objectives: 1. To determine the level of awareness
about informed consent among general practitioners. 2. To assess the association between
various socio-demographic factors to the awareness about informed consent. Study Design:
Community based cross sectional study. Settings: General medical practitioners of district
Hyderabad were the study population. Period Of Study: Two months. Material & Methods:
One hundred & forty subjects were selected for the study through purposive non-probability
sampling. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was the tool for the data collection. The
data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16.The variables of interest were gender of general
practitioners, their age, level of qualifications, residence & occasions when informed consent
was taken. The association between various socio-demographic variables was determined by
applying Chi-square test at ≤0.05 level of significance. Results: One hundred & forty general
medical practitioners of varying ages from 32-60 years participated in the study. The mean
age of the general physician was 39 ± 1.8 years. The awareness about informed consent was
found among 128(91.4%) subjects but unfortunately only 45.7%of them actually practiced it.
The results regarding awareness as well as practice of informed consent among males and
females were however not significant (p=0.520). The young general practitioners i.e age 31-40
years were less practicing informed consent as compared to older general practitioners i.e.
age 51-60 years and onwards (p= 0.04).The physicians practicing in urban areas were more
cognizant about informed consent (p=0.05).Informed consent from patients was obtained
before giving local anesthesia (80%), blood transfusion (24.3%)&before examination of female
patients (46.4%). Conclusions: Informed consent taking is not a routine process adopted by
general medical practitioners so there is a strong need for general practitioners to change their
attitude and acknowledge the patient’s autonomy by taking informed consent, which is the
basis of modern medical ethics.