603 Quality Improvement Project: Improving Patient Understanding of Dietary Fibre Content Post-Bowel Surgery

Aim Patients recovering from bowel surgery or an acute flare-up of diverticulitis, are advised to adhere to a low fibre diet and then transition to a high fibre diet. Despite these dietary recommendations, patient-friendly educational materials are lacking. This project aims to investigate:Patient and doctor understanding of dietary fibre contentThe impact of a patient-friendly flyer on patient understanding and satisfaction Method A questionnaire was given to patient’s post-bowel surgery at Northwick Park Hospital, exploring their knowledge of what constitutes low and high fibre food. A questionnaire was also distributed to general surgical doctors (non-consultants), exploring their confidence in giving dietary fibre advice. Resources from the Association of UK Dieticians were used to create a patient-friendly flyer. QR codes were included, connecting patients to high and low fibre recipes. The same cohort of patients were surveyed after reading the flyer, and their knowledge of high and low fibre food groups was remeasured. Results 75% of doctors were ‘somewhat confident’, whilst 25% were ‘not confident’ giving dietary fibre advice. The introduction of patient-friendly flyers increased patients’ ability to recognise high and low fibre food by 57.9%. A 72.7% increase in patient satisfaction with the dietary advise was recorded. Conclusions This project demonstrates poor patient knowledge of dietary fibre content, a lack of patient-friendly resources and low confidence amongst junior doctors in providing such dietary advise. A patient-friendly flyer significantly increased patient understanding and satisfaction and should be routinely provided to patients upon discharge post-bowel resection.