Decision analysis for newly diagnosed hypertensive patients: a qualitative investigation

• Published in: Patient education and counseling Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 197 - 203
• Main Authors: Weiss, Marjorie C, Montgomery, Alan A, Fahey, Tom, Peters, Tim J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.05.2004
• Subjects: Aged; Attitude to Health; Choice Behavior; Decision aids; Decision analysis; Decision Support Techniques; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Family Practice - methods; Family Practice - standards; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Status; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - diagnosis; Hypertension - psychology; Hypertension - therapy; Male; Middle Aged; Nursing; Patient Education as Topic - methods; Patient Education as Topic - standards; Patient information; Patient Selection; Physician-Patient Relations; Qualitative Research; Risk Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching Materials - standards; Videotape Recording - standards; Qualitative research; Hypertension; Patient information; Decision aids; Decision analysis
• ISSN: 0738-3991; 1873-5134
• DOI: 10.1016/S0738-3991(03)00148-4

This study adopted a qualitative approach to explore patients’ views on the usefulness of a decision analytic decision aid (DA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients who had been recruited for a factorial randomised controlled trial of two decision aids. Issues investigated included respondents’ attitudes to information, their views on the nature of their relationship with their general practitioner (GP) (paternalistic, shared or consumerist), the ease of use and potential wider application of the computerised decision aid and its influence upon their decision-making about whether or not to begin anti-hypertensive treatment. Views on the decision aid were favourable. For the majority, the decision aid appeared to confirm and/or clarify their stated preferences towards medicine-taking. Occasionally it could provoke a major shift in a respondent’s attitude to medicine-taking, while in a few it had no discernible effect. While views on the decision aid were favourable, it was difficult to determine whether this was due to the individualised cardiovascular risk information it provided or the decision analytic process itself.