Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found a video on implantable cardioverter-defibrillators can help patients understand their options but did not impact their willingness to accept treatment.
The study, published April 4 in Annals of Internal Medicine, used 311 participants to determine if videos affected patients' decision-making. The researchers found a negligible difference between those who assented to the treatment in the video group and the control group (58.6 percent and 59.4 percent, respectively). However, those who saw the video had higher knowledge scores and spent less time with their clinician to make a decision.
The researchers also examined the video's impact when the race of the characters in the video matched that of the patient. They found it had no impact on the video's effectiveness.
Previous studies found Black patients were less likely to undergo invasive cardiovascular procedures than White patients. In this study, a high percentage of Black patients in both groups were willing to undergo the procedure. The underlying cause for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator disparities may be who is offered the costly device rather than who agrees to the procedure, Eric Peterson, MD, a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, said in an April 3 news release.