Shared decision making in routine oncology appointments with Black patients with lung cancer

Poor clinician-patient communication may contribute to racialized inequities in cancer symptom burden. Shared decision-making (SDM) enhances clinician-patient communication, and could contribute to health equity for Black patients with cancer. However, research on SDM is limited for Black patients with cancer.

This multi-method longitudinal observational study examined SDM during routine oncology follow-ups for patients with advanced lung cancer. We analyzed SDM reported by clinicians (n = 6), self-identified Black patients with lung cancer (n = 30), and coded from patient visit recordings (n = 20). We described the symptom management conversations, and examined how SDM related to patient satisfaction and symptom severity with two-sided correlations.

Most patients (85.0%) asked questions during appointments and discussed cancer-related symptoms (95.0%), most commonly pain/neuropathy (65.0%). Though coded SDM during symptom discussions was low, providers and patients reported high levels of SDM. Coded SDM did not statistically significantly correlate with post-appointment satisfaction (r = -.01, p > .10) or symptom burden (r = .04, p > .10). However, patient-reported SDM did relate to post-appointment satisfaction (r = .72, p = .08) and symptom burden (r = .35, p = .08) one month later.

Through detailed multi-method analysis, we found that coded SDM did not correspond to patient and physician-reported SDM during routine oncology appointments. Patient-reported SDM correlated to several better physical and mental health outcomes as well as overall satisfaction a month later. Our findings highlight the complexities of clinician-patient communication and the importance of studying these processes for Black patients with cancer. Future research should develop culturally-relevant methods of assessing SDM with Black patients and understand Black patients' communication needs.