Year 2006 / Volume 98 / Number 6
Original
Public opinion survey after capsule endoscopy: patient’s point ofview on its utility

pp. 436-448

B. Velayos, L. Fernández, R. Aller, F. de la Calle, L. del Olmo, T. Arranz and J. M. González Hernández

Abstract
Aim: when programming a medical test such as capsule endoscopy (CE), finding the closest point between the patient’s experience and his/her expectation is essential to improve any further explorations.
For this purpose we designed a form which tries to collect the information required.

Material and methods: from December 2003 to January 2005 we examined the small intestine of 98 patients with the help of CE. Later they were sent an anonymous questionnaire in July 2005, which included 10 questions upon the origin and previous
knowledge of the patient about this technique, their tolerance to it, and the value they attached to it with regard to finding a new diagnosis and assigning different treatments, and also the
incidence in the positive or negative evolution of their disease in particular and of medicine in general.

Results: answer rate reached 58% and was slightly higher among women and people over 70 years; 80% of repliers had been informed about CE by a physician, while nearly all the rest had received previous information from the media; 37% had had
symptoms for more than 12 months, while only 17% had suffered them for one month before the exploration. A bit over 30% did not know what the specific diagnostic field of the test was (most of
them women and young people), although most of them were not surprised by the procedure. Over 75% showed “acceptable” or
“excellent” tolerance, while 5.5% (most of them young people) found it hard to bear. The opinion about its utility in the diagnosis was 37%, and although 70% thought that CE had revealed nothing
new about their pathology, over 60% declared feeling better after the test; 84% pointed out that it had achieved a breakthrough for their quality of life (most of them men and very old
people), and only 13% thought it was worthless. However, nearly all the answers agreed in that CE was an “important” or “very important”
diagnostic device.

Conclusions: after the test using CE, the diagnostic benefit detected by the patient is not the same as that shown by technical studies. Nevertheless, the test can be highly satisfactory for the
patient in particular, and also in an overall view.
CE is a well-tolerated test, applied in our setting to chronic diseases and that, contrary to what we supposed, is explained to patients
mainly by a physician. Most of them are not familiar with its specific indications.
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B. Velayos, L. Fernández, R. Aller, F. de la Calle, L. del Olmo, T. Arranz and J. M. González Hernández. Public opinion survey after capsule endoscopy: patient’s point ofview on its utility. 436-448


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The Spanish Journal of Gastroenterology is the official organ of the Sociedad Española de Patología Digestiva, the Sociedad Española de Endoscopia Digestiva and the Asociación Española de Ecografía Digestiva
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