To assess medical decision-making, reasons for attrition, and health literacy among vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients last seen in clinic more than 2 years ago.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Clinics managing vestibular schwannoma patients should assess health literacy and communication barriers to reduce patient attrition, but specific protocol changes depend on full study findings.
Understanding why vestibular schwannoma patients disengage from surveillance could help audiologists and neurotologists design better patient-retention and shared-decision-making strategies.
- 01Study focuses on vestibular schwannoma patients lost to follow-up for more than two years.
- 02Examines reasons for attrition, health literacy levels, and decision-making processes.
- 03Patient health literacy may be a barrier to appropriate management choice (surgery, radiation, or observation).
- 04Directly relevant to multidisciplinary teams managing vestibular schwannoma.
- 05Published in Otology & Neurotology Open (2026).
A subset of vestibular schwannoma patients disengage from clinic follow-up for more than two years, with health literacy as a contributing factor.
studyunclearHealth literacy influences medical decision-making in vestibular schwannoma patients.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42757395
- DOI
- 10.1097/ONO.0000000000000054.
- Journal
- Otology & Neurotology Open
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Vestibular schwannoma patients not seen in clinic for over two years
- Intervention
- Assessment of health literacy and decision-making in lost-to-follow-up patients
Primary outcomes
Reasons for patient attrition from vestibular schwannoma follow-up; Health literacy levels among disengaged vestibular schwannoma patients; Medical decision-making processes in this patient group