Doctors' Understanding of Survival Statistics

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The probably most commonly used measure for expressing the pay-offs of early detection and treatment are survival rates. Yet, over time and groups this metric comes with several biases and thus, is not reliable for judging such benefits. Epidemiologists recommend using reduction of disease-specific mortality rates instead, which is unbiased. The purpose of the study is to investigate how primary care physicians understand and use different survival measures for determining the benefit of cancer screening tests.

Official Title
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Study of Primary Care Physicians' Understanding and Use of Different Survival Measures

Conditions
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Screening

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: primary care physicians (internal, general, and family medicine physicians) Exclusion Criteria: all other types of physicians

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 30 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| mortality*incidence*5-year survival*early stage<br>Physicians will be faced in scenarios about screening with information on mortality and 5-year survival, followed by information on mortality*incidence and 5-year survival*early stage in a random order. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number of Physicians (=Participants) Recommending the Screening | The aim of the study was to learn how different medical cancer screening statistics would influence doctors' recommendation behavior and their effectiveness judgments of screening tests. For that reason the online survey study presented physicians with four different medical statistics (e.g., 5-year survival) within four successive scenarios and asked after each scenario whether they would recommend the screening to a (hypothetical) patient given the data. Options to answer are: Definitely yes, Probably yes, Probably no, Definitely no, Can't decide. | 25 minutes (mean duration of the survey) | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number of Physicians (= Participants) Assuming a Benefit of Screening | Physicians are faced with four different medical statistics about the effect of screening (e.g., 5-year survival) within four successive scenarios and after each scenario asked whether they assume the screening to be beneficial given the statistical information. Options to answer are: yes, no, can't decide. If yes, then participants are further asked to describe this benefit by the following categories: Very large, large, moderate, small, very small. | 25 minutes (mean duration of the survey) | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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survival rates, risk communication, screening counselling, screening recommendation, understanding of medical risk