The status of filled consent form of hospitalized patients in Ardabil - Northwest of Iran (2010)

Patients consent for medical care is a legal requirement. Consent is a document that patient must be necessary aware about all risks of surgery, treatment strategy, Substitution and the risks involved by physician. This study was done to evaluate status of filled consent form of hospitalized patients in Ardabil – Northwest of Iran.

This descriptive cross sectional study was done by interview with patients and accompained patients in hospitals of Ardabil – Northwest of Iran during 2010. Patient demographics and other variables gathered by a questionnaire. Data was analyzed by Chi-Square test.

86 (57%) of patients were female and 64 (43%) male. 35 (23%) were illiterate and 92 (61%) under diploma. 45% of patients get information about their illness from doctors. According to patient ideas, 13% of reception personals did not complete consent form. 65 (43.3%) of patients stated that the context of consent form was unreadable and long. Rate of completing form for patients were 87%. 40% of completed forms was not signed by witnesses. The patients and relatives were not satisfied with the form itself, and this observation statistically was significant (P<0.001).

This study showed that validity of completed consent forms are low and it is necessary to design programs for improvement the quality of filling the consent forms.