Increasing patient complicance in preparing for barium enema examination.

Since feces may mimic important lesions of the colon, adequate cleansing is required for a good diagnostic study. An experiment was designed to assess the effect of advance oral and written communication on patient compliance with instruction for preparing the colon for the barium enema. These communication methods were compared against a control group in the extent to which they would encourage patients to more adequately follow cleansing instructions. It was found that each of these increased the quality of the preparation to a similar degree and when combined resulted in the most optimal level of cleansing.