Dataset Information

Patient decision aids: a content analysis based on a decision tree structure.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

This paper presents the preliminary results of a decision-tree analysis of Patient Decision Aids (PDA). PDAs are online or offline tools used to structure health information, elicit relevant values and emphasize the decision as a process, in ways that help patients make more informed health decisions individually or with relevant others.

Method

Twenty PDAs are randomly selected from the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) ( https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/AZlist.html ) approved list. An evaluation tool is built bottom-up and top-down and results are described in terms of communicating uncertainty, completeness of the decision tree, ambiguous or misleading phrasing, overall strategies suggested within personal stories.

Results

Twelve of the analyzed PDAs had branches of the decision tree which were not discussed in the tool and 6 had logically ambiguous phrasing. Many tools included dichotomous options, when the option range was wider. Several options were clustered within the "Do not take/Do not do" option and thus the PDA failed to provide all comparisons necessary to make a decision. Some tools employ expressions that do not differentiate between lack of information and known negative effects. Other tools provide unequal amounts or non-comparable bits of information about the options.

Conclusion

These results indicate a very loose range of interpretations of what constitutes an option, a treatment, and a treatment option. It thus emphasizes a gap between theory and practice in the evaluation of PDAs. Future developments of PDA evaluation tools should keep track of missing decision tree branches, accurate communication of uncertainty, ambiguity, and lack of knowledge and consider using measures for evaluating the completeness of the option spectrum at an agreed period in time.

SUBMITTER: Gheondea-Eladi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6642566 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Patient decision aids: a content analysis based on a decision tree structure.

Gheondea-Eladi Alexandra A

BMC medical informatics and decision making 20190719 1

<h4>Introduction</h4>This paper presents the preliminary results of a decision-tree analysis of Patient Decision Aids (PDA). PDAs are online or offline tools used to structure health information, elicit relevant values and emphasize the decision as a process, in ways that help patients make more informed health decisions individually or with relevant others.<h4>Method</h4>Twenty PDAs are randomly selected from the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) ( https://decisionaid.ohri.c ...[more]

PMID: 31324237

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Project description:BackgroundEffective use of a patient decision aid (PtDA) can be affected by the user's health literacy and the PtDA's characteristics. Systematic reviews of the relevant literature can guide PtDA developers to attend to the health literacy needs of patients. The reviews reported here aimed to assess:MethodsWe reviewed literature for evidence relevant to these two aims. When high-quality systematic reviews existed, we summarized their evidence. When reviews were unavailable, we conducted our own systematic reviews.ResultsAim 1: In an existing systematic review of PtDA trials, lower health literacy was associated with lower patient health knowledge (14 of 16 eligible studies). Fourteen studies reported practical design strategies to improve knowledge for lower health literacy patients. In our own systematic review, no studies reported on values clarity per se, but in 2 lower health literacy was related to higher decisional uncertainty and regret. Lower health literacy was associated with less desire for involvement in 3 studies, less question-asking in 2, and less patient-centered communication in 4 studies; its effects on other measures of patient involvement were mixed. Only one study assessed the effects of a health literacy intervention on outcomes; it showed that using video to improve the salience of health states reduced decisional uncertainty. Aim 2: In our review of 97 trials, only 3 PtDAs overtly addressed the needs of lower health literacy users. In 90% of trials, user health literacy and readability of the PtDA were not reported. However, increases in knowledge and informed choice were reported in those studies in which health literacy needs were addressed.ConclusionLower health literacy affects key decision-making outcomes, but few existing PtDAs have addressed the needs of lower health literacy users. The specific effects of PtDAs designed to mitigate the influence of low health literacy are unknown. More attention to the needs of patients with lower health literacy is indicated, to ensure that PtDAs are appropriate for lower as well as higher health literacy patients.

Project description:BackgroundThe original version of the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) recommended that patient decision aids (PtDAs) should be carefully developed, user-tested and open to scrutiny, with a well-documented and systematically applied development process. We carried out a review to check the relevance and scope of this quality dimension and, if necessary, to update it.MethodsOur review drew on three sources: a) published papers describing PtDAs evaluated in randomised controlled trials and included in the most recent Cochrane Collaboration review; b) linked papers cited in the trial reports that described how the PtDAs had been developed; and c) papers and web reports outlining the development process used by organisations experienced in developing multiple PtDAs. We then developed an extended model of the development process indicating the various steps on which documentation is required, as well as a checklist to assess the frequency with which each of the elements was publicly reported.ResultsKey features common to all patient decision aid (PtDA) development processes include: scoping and design; development of a prototype; 'alpha' testing with patients and clinicians in an iterative process; 'beta' testing in 'real life' conditions (field tests); and production of a final version for use and/or further evaluation. Only about half of the published reports on the development of PtDAs that we reviewed appear to have been field tested with patients, and even fewer had been reviewed or tested by clinicians not involved in the development process. Very few described a distribution strategy, and surprisingly few (17%) described a method for reviewing and synthesizing the clinical evidence. We describe a model development process that includes all the original elements of the original IPDAS criterion, expanded to include consideration of format and distribution plans as well as prototype development.ConclusionsThe case for including each of the elements outlined in our model development process is pragmatic rather than evidence-based. Optimal methods for ensuring that each stage of the process is carried out effectively require further development and testing.

Dataset Information

Patient decision aids: a content analysis based on a decision tree structure.

Introduction

Method

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Patient decision aids: a content analysis based on a decision tree structure.

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