Physician Awareness of Patients' Preferred Level of Involvement in Decision Making
Condition: Preferred Level of Involvement in Decision Making
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Understanding a patient's decision-making preferences can help physicians meet their
      expectations and may increase patient satisfaction with the decision-making process.
    

Detailed description: 
      Many health systems are shifting policies to promote greater patient involvement in
      healthcare delivery. Studies have shown that general medical patients who are more active in
      their care are more satisfied, more committed, have a better understanding of treatment
      plans, and experience greater improvements in health and patient-centered outcomes when
      compared to more passive patients. That being said, studies have found that patients have
      varying preferences when it comes to decision making. Understanding a patient's
      decision-making preferences can help physicians meet their expectations and may increase
      patient satisfaction with the decision-making process.

      This awareness of decision-making preferences could be beneficial in treating quality of life
      conditions. Patients seeking care for pelvic floor disorders make medical decisions aimed
      toward improving symptoms, function, and quality of life. In a recent study, researchers
      found that 50% of women preferred active involvement, 45% collaborative and 5% passive.
      However, patients were 1.56 (95% CI:1.06-2.29) times more likely to report collaborative or
      passive involvement after their visit (p=0.02) with 40% of patients rating their actual role
      as active, 48% as collaborative, and 11% as passive. In this study, 37% of women did not
      experience their preferred level of decision-making. Other studies have similar findings with
      reported 20-40% discordance between patients' preferred involvement and what was achieved.

      Discordance can negatively impact patients' outcomes and experiences of care. Interventions
      to minimize discordance between patients' preferred and perceived involvement in
      decision-making may significantly improve their overall experience and satisfaction. One
      possible intervention is eliciting women's preferred level of involvement in decision making
      prior to the visit and making this information available to the physician. The current study
      aims to determine whether physicians' awareness of patients' preferred involvement in
      decision making prior to their initial urogynecologist visit affects patients' perceived
      involvement in decision making after their visit.
    

Intervention name(s): Physician Awareness; Usual Care
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): The patients' pre-visit Control Preference Scale responses are shared with their physician.; The patients' pre-visit Control Preference Scale responses are not shared with their physician.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Women will be randomly assigned to physician awareness or treatment as usual (control) using a 1:1 allocation
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research