Communication evaluation and information behaviors of implant patients: insights from a German patient survey.

BACKGROUND

Implant patients are confronted with a variety of uncertainties that they need to cope with. Being actively involved in the decision-making process, which may develop over months or years, is likely to drive a strong need for communication and information.

METHODS

To provide a basis for deriving recommendations for trust-promoting information provision and strategies for supportive communication in patient interaction, an online survey of a stratified sample of the German population was conducted. The current study focuses on a subsample of hip/knee implant patients, dental implant patients, and cochlear implant patients (n = 1,667).

RESULTS

The results indicated that implant patients' satisfaction with the quantity of information provided was only mid-scale on average. This indicates that there are some unmet informational needs in medical consultation. In addition to advice and counseling they receive during their treatment process in the healthcare system, implant patients require a broad range of complementary information from a variety of sources. Depending on the implant type, specific patterns of information-seeking behaviors become evident.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that communication efforts that aim to support implant patients have to be implant-specific, should be offered via different media and communication channels. Cochlear implant patients turn out to have demands that need to be explored in more detail.