A Study on Information Sources of Patients Receiving Organ Transplantation

Objective Access to quality information is essential for greater patient participation in treatment. This study aims to investigate the information sources of organ transplant recipients in Mashhad, Iran. Methods This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out from December 2017 to May 2018. Participants were 115 patients who received liver and kidney transplantation in Montaseriyeh Hospital in Mashhad. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire with acceptable validity and test re-test reliability. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software, version 16. Results The Mean age of the participants was 35.7±11 years. Most of them had the desire to receive more information about their disease (93%). The attending physician (Mean=8.91), Nurses (Mean=7.38), and other organ transplant patients (Mean=6.80) were the most popular sources of information for patients. The main reasons for using information sources were “having better understanding of the disease” (Mean=8.32), and “curiosity to learn more about the disease” (Mean=7.73). The most important problems in obtaining information were the lack of familiarity with medical terms (Mean=7.32) and information sources (Mean=7.16), and lack of access to information in Persian (Mean=7.14). Regarding the best type of educational method for information acquisition, verbal/face-to-face method got the highest score (Mean=9.05). Conclusion An appropriate and organized program should be developed for organ transplant patients to increase their health literacy as one of their undeniable rights.