School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran , kd388@yahoo.com
Abstract: (22 Views)
Background and aim: Surgery is an invasive intervention with a high risk of complications, especially in the elderly, and this highlights the importance of decision-making and providing adequate information to the patient. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the ethical and legal aspects of consent to surgery in elderly patients. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which was conducted on 100 patients over 65 years of age who referred to Poursina and Razi hospitals of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in the form of a census in 2023. The data for this study were extracted from the patient records, which included age, gender, type of surgery, person signing the consent form, level of education of the person giving consent, and surgical risk based on the records of admitted patients. In this study, the collected data was entered into SPSS version 26. Findings: In this study, the mean age of the patients was 74.57 ± 11.32 years, and the frequency of males and females was 50 (50%). In terms of the type of surgery, 83% of the studied cases had non-emergency surgery. The highest frequency regarding the person signing the consent form was related to the category of patient and companion consent (65%). The highest frequency in education category was related to university education (42%). The highest frequency of surgical risk was related to high-risk surgery (46%). 50% of the participants had an average understanding of the patient consent form. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the understanding of elderly patients regarding the terms of the consent form varied; half of the participants had an average understanding, and approximately 45% had a good understanding. This suggests that the consent process for elderly patients requires more attention to ensure that all patients have a sufficient understanding of the provided information.