Written versus verbal information for patients' education on healthcare-associated infections: a cross-sectional study.

In 2008, Piedmont region, Italy, recommended delivering written information on healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) to every patient admitted to hospitals. We interviewed 363 patients admitted to five hospitals to evaluate whether patients who received written information were more informed about HCAI than the other patients. We found no statistically significant difference between the two groups. We did observe that knowledge of HCAI was significantly lower among women and significantly higher among patients with higher education and those admitted to a surgical ward.