[Recommendations for patients on preparing for dermatology-allergology consultations: Evaluation of the information notice of the French Society for Dermatology].

BACKGROUND: Skin patch-tests in dermatology-allergology practice require good preparation. To this end, the dermatology-allergology group of the French Society of Dermatology introduced an information notice informing patients about patch testing procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility and understanding of the notice.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The information notice was sent out to patients before testing. On the day of the test, a questionnaire was submitted to patients to evaluate their comprehension of the notice. Another questionnaire was submitted simultaneously to the dermatology-allergology practitioner to evaluate whether the patient had complied with the guidelines given in the information notice. Paired questionnaires were analyzed for this study.

RESULTS: Eight dermatology-allergology hospital departments participated in the study and collected 921 paired questionnaires over a period of 18months. Among the vast majority (96.2%) of patients who had read the information notice, most found it useful (98.8%), easy to read (97.4%), and appropriate (91.5%). Ten percent of patients had difficulty understanding.

CONCLUSION: This study shows that the information notice was clear and explicit for the immense majority of patients. Thanks to the feedback of a number of patients, the information notice was further improved to enhance patient understanding.