Improving Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy With a Simple Educational Card

Despite written instructions, many patients do not understand the importance of bowel preparation as they prepare for colonoscopy. This often leads to poor compliance with preparation protocol and therefore inadequate bowel preparation. Our goal is to include a simple educational card which will hopefully improve the quality of bowel preparation by providing a visual component with the preparation instructions. This card will stress the importance of drinking the entire bowel preparation and provide representative images of a dirty and clean colon. We will specifically target patients directly booked for screening colonoscopy (those without a pre-procedure office visit). In a randomized fashion, patients in the control group will receive the standard bowel preparation instructions and patients in the intervention group will receive the educational card along with the standard bowel preparation instructions. The primary outcome will be the endoscopist's assessment of the quality of preparation using a standardized bowel preparation scale. Secondary outcomes will include the number and types of polyps found, colonoscope insertion and withdrawal time, and patient satisfaction with the procedure.

Inclusion criteria

• Outpatients
• 18 years old or older
• Referred and scheduled for an elective screening colonoscopy

Exclusion criteria

• Inpatients
• Prisoners
• Cognitively impaired patients
• Legally blind patients
• Patients allergic to polyethylene glycol electrolyte lavage solution