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How does feeling informed relate to being informed? The DECISIONS survey
Karen R Sepucha1, Angela Fagerlin, Mick P Couper
1School of Medicine, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. ksepucha@partners.org
Summary
Patients often overestimate their understanding of medical decisions. Accurate patient knowledge assessment is crucial for informed decision-making in healthcare.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Patient Decision Making
- Medical Education
Background:
- High-quality, patient-centered care necessitates informed patients.
- Assessing patient understanding of medical decisions is vital for effective healthcare delivery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between patients' perceived level of information and their actual knowledge regarding common medical decisions.
- To explore how this relationship varies across different types of medical decisions.
Main Methods:
- A national cross-sectional survey of 2575 US adults aged 40+ was conducted.
- Participants reported on their perceived informedness and answered knowledge questions about medication, cancer screening, or surgery decisions.
- Multivariate logistic regression analyzed the association between perceived informedness and knowledge scores.
Main Results:
- No overall significant relationship was found between perceived informedness and actual knowledge.
- A negative association was observed for cancer screening decisions, while a positive association emerged for surgery decisions.
- Trust in the physician, lower education, and lower income were associated with higher perceived informedness.
Conclusions:
- Patients' self-assessment of their understanding of medical decisions is often inaccurate.
- Clinicians should proactively provide comprehensive information and verify patient comprehension to ensure truly informed decision-making.
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02:16Surveys
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01:20Decision Making
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01:27Nurses' Legal Responsibilities I
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The legal responsibilities of a nurse regarding informed consent include the following:
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01:07Data Collection by Survey
The systematic method of obtaining and analyzing accurate information of a population is called data collection. A survey is a standard method of data collection that involves collecting information from a target human population about their experience, opinion, or knowledge of a product, service, or process. The responses are recorded and interpreted. The most common survey examples are written questionnaires, face-to-face or telephonic conversations, focus groups, and electronic (e-mail or...
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01:25Factors Affecting Perception
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