Effectiveness of multimedia aids to enhance comprehension of research consent information: a systematic review.

We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies of the effectiveness of multimedia tools to enhance the research consent process. Relative to routine consent procedures, multimedia aided consent resulted in significantly better participant comprehension in 10 of 20 reviewed studies, and in six of the remaining studies multimedia aided consent resulted in superior comprehension or retention for some subgroups or for at least some key aspects of the disclosed material. The overall pattern of findings suggests that multimedia tools can be effective aids to the research consent process under some circumstances. However, further research is needed with multimedia tools that are more firmly grounded in conceptual models of human information processing in the consent process. Such conceptual model driven research is critical to determine which multimedia tools are useful in which specific contexts and for which specific participants.