Educational booklet improves bowel preparation for inpatients

(HealthDay)—Providing inpatients with an educational booklet before colonoscopy improves the odds of achieving adequate bowel preparation, according to a study published in the June issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

William F. Ergen, M.D., from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues conducted a randomized trial involving inpatients scheduled for inpatient colonoscopy. Participants were randomized to groups that were (45 patients) or were not (40 controls) given the booklet before bowel preparation the evening preceding colonoscopy. Bowel preparation was assessed using the Boston Bowel preparation scale (BBPS) at the colonoscopy.

The researchers found that adequate bowel preparation was seen for 62 percent of patients who received the booklet and 35 percent of those who did not (P = 0.012). To attain adequate bowel preparation, the number needed to treat was 4. After receipt of the booklet, the odds of achieving an adequate bowel preparation and a higher total BBPS score were 3.14 and 2.27, respectively, after adjustment for age and history of prior colonoscopies. Three and nine patients in the booklet and no-booklet group, respectively, had a BBPS score of 0 (P = 0.036).

"In a randomized controlled trial, we found that providing hospitalized patients with an educational booklet on colonoscopy preparation increases the odds of a quality bowel preparation more than two-fold," the authors write.