A systematic review outlining the impact of education on patients and physicians in gastroenterology

ABSTRACT

Functional gastrointestinal symptoms (FGIDs) refer to a noticeable change in the body that is reported by the patient as being different from normal. FGIDs can have a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life by interfering with daily functioning. The primary objective of the current paper was to identify short-term educational interventions for patients diagnosed with FGIDs and medically unexplained symptoms. This is with the aim of assessing its effectiveness on patient’s quality of life and symptom severity. The second objective was to establish the current educational programmes and training opportunities available for physicians working with this subgroup of patients. This is in order to ascertain if these could change negative physician beliefs and attitudes. Databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar were searched from November to February 2018. A total of eight interventions were found which were evaluated using the Behavioural Change Techniques Taxonomy. Short-term educational programmes combining the use of lectures and practical sessions were found to be the most effective in improving patient quality of life and symptom severity. Managing patient exposure through the use of problem-based learning was considered the most effective teaching method for trainee physicians and could help to prevent the internalisation of negative attitudes. Definite conclusions about the effectiveness of patient and physician interventions are difficult to ascertain due to the small number of studies found and the high risk of bias. Future research should focus on providing a more unified approach to the management of this subgroup of patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Functional gastrointestinal disorders
• medically unexplained symptoms
• quality of life
• physician attitudes
• early education

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This study received funding from the Mapfre Foundation’s Ignacio H. de Larramendi grants.