Piloting of a Decision Aid for Recurrent Tonsillitis

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Decision Science
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Recurrent tonsillitis management lacks adult-specific decision support tools.
• Physician implicit bias can influence treatment decisions.
• A prototype decision aid (DA) was developed to address this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot a prototype decision aid (DA) for adult recurrent tonsillitis.
• To assess the impact of the DA on the quality of decision-making.
• To evaluate patient decisional satisfaction and surgical uptake.

Main Methods:

• A single-centre, randomized clinical trial involving 43 patients.
• Patients were allocated to either the DA group or Treatment as Usual (TAU).
• The primary outcome was patient-rated decision-making quality using the SURE scale.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant difference in decision-making quality was observed between the DA and TAU groups at baseline or follow-up.
• A statistically significant improvement in decisional satisfaction was noted at the time of decision-making for the DA group.
• No other significant differences were found between the groups regarding satisfaction or surgical uptake.

Conclusions:

• The developed DA is an acceptable and potentially useful tool for recurrent tonsillitis management.
• The DA may help mitigate physician implicit bias in treatment recommendations.
• Preliminary findings suggest the DA does not yet improve the overall quality of patient decision-making.