ABSTRACT
Introduction: Informed consent is the back bone of patients' autonomy. The advancement in medical technology has further increased its importance. In the developing countries including Pakistan, general physicians play a vital role in providing health care to the patients but unfortunately majority of them are unaware about the ethical aspects of their medical practice
Methodology:
Objectives: 1. To determine the level of awareness about informed consent among general practitioners. 2. To assess the association between various socio-demographic factors to the awareness about informed consent
Study Design: Community based cross sectional study
Settings: General medical practitioners of district Hyderabad were the study population
Period Of Study: Two months
Material and Methods: One hundred and forty subjects were selected for the study through purposive non-probability sampling. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was the tool for the data collection. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16.The variables of interest were gender of general practitioners, their age, level of qualifications, residence and occasions when informed consent was taken. The association between various socio-demographic variables was determined by applying Chi-square test at
Results: One hundred and forty general medical practitioners of varying ages from 32-60 years participated in the study. The mean age of the general physician was 39 +/- 1.8 years. The awareness about informed consent was found among 128[91.4%] subjects but unfortunately only 45.7%of them actually practiced it. The results regarding awareness as well as practice of informed consent among males and females were however not significant [p=0.520]. The young general practitioners i.e age 31-40 years were less practicing informed consent as compared to older general practitioners i.e. age 51-60 years and onwards [p= 0.04].The physicians practicing in urban areas were more cognizant about informed consent [p=0.05].Informed consent from patients was obtained before giving local anesthesia [80%], blood transfusion [24.3%]and before examination of female patients [46.4%]
Conclusions: Informed consent taking is not a routine process adopted by general medical practitioners so there is a strong need for general practitioners to change their attitude and acknowledge the patient's autonomy by taking informed consent, which is the basis of modern medical ethics