Effect of Preoperative Education on Postoperative Outcomes Among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose: The objective of this review was to assess the effect of preoperative education on postoperative outcomes among patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was made on PubMed, CINAHL, Ovid, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane database between 1995 and 2015. Fourteen randomized controlled trials were included. Data analysis was performed with RevMan software and created the Supplementary Appendix using the GRADE approach. Findings: Meta-analysis showed that preoperative education reduced anxiety scores (standardized mean difference = -0.96, 95% confidence interval: -1.37, -0.54; P < .0001). However, there was no significant effect of preoperative education on pain, depression, and length of hospital stay. There is low-quality evidence, and reasons for downgrading are due to study design limitations, inconsistency, and imprecision of effect estimates. Conclusions: The results show that preoperative education can effectively decrease anxiety in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.