Decision Quality Among Parents Who Are Offered Ventilation Tube Insertion for Their Children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Otolaryngology
• Health Decision-Making
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Ventilation tube (VT) insertion is a common pediatric procedure.
• Assessing parental understanding and decision-making quality is crucial for informed consent.
• Existing tools may not fully capture the nuances of parental decision-making regarding VT insertion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a Decision Quality (DQ) tool for assessing parental decision-making regarding their child's ventilation tube (VT) insertion.
• To evaluate the relationship between DQ, decisional conflict, shared decision-making, parental knowledge, and treatment goals.

Main Methods:

• A survey was conducted with 100 parents in a pediatric otolaryngology clinic.
• The survey compared a validated Decisional Conflict (DC) scale with a novel DQ instrument.
• The DQ instrument included measures of Shared Decision-Making (SDM), parental treatment goals, and knowledge about VT insertion.

Main Results:

• Parents electing VT insertion demonstrated significantly lower decisional conflict (7.15 vs 24.74) and higher DQ scores (83.00 vs 72.61) compared to those who did not.
• The developed DQ tool showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.76).
• Higher DQ scores correlated with lower DC scores (Spearman's rho = -0.458).

Conclusions:

• The developed DQ tool effectively measures parental decision quality regarding VT insertion.
• Higher DQ is associated with the decision to proceed with VT insertion.
• This instrument can be valuable for further research into parental decision-making, particularly for cases where VT insertion is declined.